I felt quite anxious reading this.
Reminds me of the endless reinstalls I had to do of windows back in the 2000s and the anxiety of it all working again once it was back running. So glad that isn't necessary anymore.
Don’t format a drive of M1 Macs from recovery mode
61–70 of 154 posts
Re: Don’t format a drive of M1 Macs from recovery mode
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I'm not disagreeing that this should be possible to (easily) factory reset a device, it also shouldn't be possible for just _anyone_ with physical access to completely reset the device either. Easy resets also mean more interesting to steal
Why though ? If someone wants to harm you, they can damage the hard drive enough so that the data is unreadable if they have physical access.
So that they can use/sell the stolen Macbook, which is much more common than stealing a Macbook to delete the data.
Re: Don’t format a drive of M1 Macs from recovery mode
#63Genuine question, but do Apple users upgrade to the latest version of the OS or is that optional?
Just asking for a friend.
Re: Don’t format a drive of M1 Macs from recovery mode
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
You'd likely brick your mac if you don't do it the anointed way.
As long as you don't shoot yourself in the foot by touching other NVMe namespaces (and even that should be recoverable) and the SPI flash onboard, things can be restorable through DFU.
While it would make a lot of sense for Apple to use NVMe namespaces in this manner, it appears from information posted elsewhere in this thread by marcan_42 that Apple is not doing so, and is just using regular GPT partitions within a single NVMe namespace to store the stuff that isn't on the motherboard's NOR flash.
Re: Don’t format a drive of M1 Macs from recovery mode
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it that hard to just corrupt the file system?
Like iPhones, new Macs are linked to an account and you can’t activate a new installation without access to the account. This is a pretty strong theft deterrent. Of course this only works if you need access to the account to break this link.
[deleted]
Re: Don’t format a drive of M1 Macs from recovery mode
#66I'm still wondering how to unseal a formerly protected SSV M1 volume after disabling all csrutil protections, namely:
https://twitter.com/braincode/status/1360117171842478081
Device enrollment prompts are indeed annoying :/
Re: Don’t format a drive of M1 Macs from recovery mode
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why though ? If someone wants to harm you, they can damage the hard drive enough so that the data is unreadable if they have physical access.
So that they can use/sell the stolen Macbook, which is much more common than stealing a Macbook to delete the data.
Erasing the drive doesn't let you do this, the Apple ID of the owner is stored elsewhere and you have to log in to restore the machine.
Re: Don’t format a drive of M1 Macs from recovery mode
#68I felt quite anxious reading this. Reminds me of the endless reinstalls I had to do of windows back in the 2000s and the anxiety of it all working again once it was back running. So glad that isn't necessary anymore.
What is needed to mess up an OS so badly that a reinstall fixes it?
Re: Don’t format a drive of M1 Macs from recovery mode
#69I felt quite anxious reading this. Reminds me of the endless reinstalls I had to do of windows back in the 2000s and the anxiety of it all working again once it was back running. So glad that isn't necessary anymore.
What is needed to mess up an OS so badly that a reinstall fixes it?
Back then it was mainly driver issues - you could also boot safe mode and see it trying to load many various versions of a driver - usually the graphics driver.
You could fix it by hand or you could do a fresh install - which would also wipe out any errant startup programs, etc.
Re: Don’t format a drive of M1 Macs from recovery mode
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
So that they can use/sell the stolen Macbook, which is much more common than stealing a Macbook to delete the data.
Erasing the drive doesn't let you do this, the Apple ID of the owner is stored elsewhere and you have to log in to restore the machine.
This was a response to a comment about a potential feature as described:
"Why does the recovery not just have a button called factory reset which unlinks your apple account, deletes the volume and then sets it all up like new."
So yes, it currently does not work like that. But such a feature would allow Macbooks to be easily stolen and reused by others.