Which Mac OS Does One Get?

[honestone]

There is something that ii not very clear when selecting an option from the (hidden) Recovery HD's menu. Let me explain.

As some of us (including myself0 have mentioned, with a Time Machine backup, about the only way to do a recovery and/or a clean. fresh installation of a Mac OS is by first booting to the Recovery HD partition. This link describes how that is done, and what one can do with that partition:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

As can be seen, the second task there is "Reinstall macOS". From what I understand, that entails two tasks:

1. Go to Apple's servers and "obtain" the Mac OS.

2. Perform the clean installation on one's internal drive, via the internet.

What is not clear is which Mac OS is obtained. If someone could clarify that (Cory?), that would be useful. (I actually do not need the information, as I go about any kind of recovery/installation/re-installation of the Mac OS in a different, more controlled fashion).

 

[Cory Cooper]

This is what Apple says:

How to reinstall macOS

Hope that helps,

C

 

[honestone]

Thanks Cory. A couple of caveats I see:

1. The first choice deems unclear. When they say "installed on your Mac", does that when when the Mac was originally purchased, or when? And would it matter where it was purchased from, and also whether it is brand new, reconditioned and/or recertified?

2. The second choice could be "problematic", because for any Mac that can run High Sierra, that is the OS you will get. Given all the issues associated with High Sierra (and I can tell you that based on discussions I am having on the site www.micromat.com (the company that makes Tech Tool Pro), there are definitely serious issues), not sure if that would be the wisest choice.

3. Choice 3 is similar to choice 1, as to what Apple means by "the macOS that came with your Mac, or the version closest to it that is still available".

I guess if one purchased a Mac brand new, that should clear up #1 and #3.

Note that except for #2, there is not much (if any) control over which Mac OS you'll get. For example, if your Mac came with Yosemite (OS 10.10.x), and you wanted to obtain Sierra (OS 10.12.6), using the Recovery ID method and the choices above, it is not possible to get it (unless you happened to download and installed it before, and thus it would be within your "Purchases". But that involve a different way to proceeding with installing it.

Also note that all 3 of those methods would be done via the internet, and thus would be slow.