Selling macbook pro and installing bootcamb, step by step please

Hi Ramy,

If you want to do this, you will have to follow these instructions exactly. Also, you may or may not need sighted assistance for some of this. The parts I used to have trouble on my old Intel MacBook Pro, was selecting my Wi-Fi after resetting the drive, And getting VoiceOver to actually turn on, on the recovery screen. It does work, but my experience was that the volume was extremely low, plugging in a headset/earbud did help, a little bit.

The steps:
First we are going to wipe the hard drive.

1. Power on, or reboot if it's already on, and immediately press command plus option plus R. Hold these keys down for several seconds.
2. As I recall, there is no Audible alert to let you know this worked, so maybe hold the keys for 15 to 20 seconds, and then let go. Wait another 10 seconds or so, and then start spamming command plus F5 until you actually hear voiceover activate. Note, it will be using the Fred voice.
3. If the first two steps above worked, you should be on the recovery screen. There are three or four options here. The first option you want is disk utility.
4. Basic voiceover navigation works here, so just arrow up or down until you highlight disk utility, press VO plus space, or enter.
5. On the disk utility screen, you want to highlight the disk that actually holds your current build of macOS. Note there may be anything from 2 to 6 options on the disk utility screen. You want the one labeled "MacIntosh HD", assuming when you installed macOS before, you left the hard drive with its default label.
6. Now pay attention, and be patient here. You want to choose the erase disc option. First highlight Macintosh HD. Next, navigate over to the erased disk option. There may be a bunch of choices here. The important options are format, you're going to want AFS. It's up to you what level of erasing you want, most people just go with the quickest option. Next, choose name, best to just go with "Macintosh HD". Navigate over to erase or it may be labeled delete, and activate that button. If you navigate back, there will be a checkbox or a collapsible button to show details in a contractable window. This is optional, but you can go in and see what the computer is doing as it Eracist files etc. when it is done, the done button at the end will be highlighted. Activate it, and then you should be done with disutility. If everything went as planned, you should have a brand new squeaky clean Macintosh HD Drive showing in your list of drives under disutility. From here, you can press command Q, or activate the menu above with VO plus M, then choose the first option, and navigate to the bottom and close disc utility.
7. When you close disk utility, you, should, be back on the recovery screen. Now you want to choose the option to reinstall macOS. Navigate to that option, I believe it's the last option, and press VO plus space, or enter. You won't see this, but a globe will eventually appear on your screen with a progress bar. This will take some time, because it's basically downloading the latest available macOS software for your computer, and will install it once it's downloaded.
8. Here is where you, May, need sighted assistance. When the globe pops up and that progress bar appears, it will eventually ask you to choose a network to connect to. Unfortunately, I have never been able to get VO to work on this particular screen. However, if you can do that, or if you have a sighted assistant to help you click your network, then you will be golden. Once you are past the network stage, you just have to sit back and wait for your MacBook to do its thing. You won't need to touch the computer again, until it boots up a fresh macOS for the first time.

This portion will now be done. You have no need to log into your MacBook, go through the set up process, add your Apple ID, none of that. Since you're selling your Mac, it is now wiped all of your personal data, and is now ready to be sold.

However...

You said your friend wants you to set up windows on it for her to use. I am not sure if you can install windows on Boot Camp without adding your Apple credentials, but I'm gonna write out the instructions, assuming that you can. If not, your friend will just have to add her own credentials, and then you can follow the below instructions. Best of luck, whichever way you go about it.

Ignore adding your Apple ID, or even adding a pin to your macOS desktop. Once you've gotten the computer booted to the desktop, open up utilities, I believe this is command plus shift plus you if memory serves. Activate Boot Camp, and follow the instructions.
Things to consider, you need a valid copy of Windows OS, and you need a valid product key. Unlike macOS, Windows is not free. Also, I would recommend you see if your Mac is capable of running Windows 11, because Microsoft no longer supports Windows 10.
Otherwise, if you have all of that, just follow the Boot Camp on screen instructions. They are quite self-explanatory.

HTH.

Edited for silly typos

1. You don't need to specify a network if you have an ethernet cable. You should get one, they're handy. If your WiFi goes, either on the computer or router/modem end, it's really useful to be able to plug in directly.

2. I honestly don't remember how I did this, but I didn't use Bootcamp on my old intel Mac, an iMac from Ca. 2011. I wiped the drive and installed Windows directly, then added the Bootcamp drivers from Apple. It worked a treat.

I forget if you can format as NTFS directly when you erase the drive. Also, you need to go into the toolbar of Disk Utility and pick an option there, unfortunately I forget what it is. Maybe you have to pick the partition your Mac's drive is on, or there might be a "show all" or something, and then you pick the partition from the table. When I ran DU and just tried to erase Mac HD, it never worked until I did this. I didn't do it that often and had to fight with it until I remembered you had to do this every single time.

Anyway, you shouldn't need to mess around with wiping Mac OS, then reinstalling it, then doing stuff with Bootcamp and leaving a minimal amount of the HD for the Mac to boot. If it's intel, just install Windows on the whole drive and be done with it. You might not even need the Bootcamp drivers, I forget what all they make work, the mouse probably. But I'd find them if you can and install them into Windows, just to be sure.

You don't get the *whole* HD obviously, but whatever gets used is really minimal. And there is no Mac OS, it just boots right to Windows. Obviously you can still get to the recovery stuff if you want to reinstall Mac OS or whatever. But you can just make it a Windows machine. My iMac was, IIRC, running Win 10. I don't think you're going to get Win 11, no TPM in your Mac probably.

If you have any kind of USB sound device, one ofthose cheap adapters, a USB microphone with a headphone jack, you can do this all with no sighted help, reformat your Mac with VO, install Win using Narrator, obviously you need Win setup media. Grab yourself a USB drive and generate some.

Windows 11 requires specific trusted platform modules that are not and have never been available in any Mac, so you will only be able to install Windows 10, which as far as I know is no longer receiving security updates unless you pay Microsoft, and even that option is unlikely to last very long. Therefore I strongly advise against using Intel Macs these days. They might still work as Linux machines, but that's all.

As for the aforementioned audio and network problems, it's always a good idea to have a USB dongle with a physical Ethernet port for situations like these, and while the multimedia keys do not work for controlling audio in Recovery, pressing VO+- and VO+= with VoiceOver running has the same effect of pressing the volume function keys in a normal situation. Finally I do not recommend the quickest format option, since all it does is recreate the filesystem structure as if it had no data but without actually erasing the data itself.

so, yes this is possible. I recommended wiping and reinstalling macOS, because I was under the (mis)understanding that the person the OP wanted to sell to, wanted both macOS and Windows OS. That was my mistake.
as I understand things. The way to do this, is to create a bootable thumb drive with the Windows OS software. I think that thumb drive needs to be formatted to GPT, I think I'm saying this right, in order to work with the Mac's architecture.
A partition needs to be made on the Macintosh HD, using fat 32 format. Then, reboot the Mac, hold down the option key, and I believe this will take you to a screen that will allow you to select the windows boot volume, to install Windows directly, bypassing BootCamp.
I'm sure somebody will jump on here and tell me how wrong I am, but in my defense it has been a long time since I have messed with windows on a Mac computer. 🙄

That's why I don't remember any of the steps. I think I got the iMac back in, 2016 maybe? I used it for a few days and then wiped it and installed Windows. But to be fair, I think the latest thing it could run was High SIerra.

Don't use Windows 10 anymore. Windows 11 can be made to run on Intel Macs, but it's a complicated procedure. You have to bypass all Microsoft's requirements and use the latest BootCamp drivers that aren't technically compatible and could break at any time. It's also necessary to manually update between major versions, such as 24H2, 25H2, 26H2, etc because this is technically an unsupported configuration.
You should also install the latest version of Monterey to get the latest firmware for the computer. I wouldn't recommend using macOS anymore either. Monterey hasn't been patched since late 2024 and while you could use OCLP, Tahoe will be the last Intel release and will only get support until 2028.

If you want to proceed, I can try to help, but I don't have this machine, so I can only give general steps.

Hi Ramy,

Practically speaking:

• Windows 11 is not supported on Intel-based Macs; and
• Running Windows 10 is not recommended, because it is no longer receiving active security updates from Microsoft.

Apologies for suggesting you install Win 11. I forgot the steps one must do for an intel Mac are... a headache.
Yes, you, can, get away with installing and running Win 10. The problem is you can only update to the latest patch/security fix/etc that Microsoft released for Win 10, which expired on October 14 2025. So... once you have updated to that point, you can update no further.
With regards to 3rd party internet security, yes you can use these, just do a little research and make sure these companies are still supporting Win 10.

Final note, I understand you wish to sell your MacBook, but if your friend just wants a Windows machine, she would do better simply buying a Windows laptop.

HTH.

This is completely up to you. Windows 10 will work for now, but it's unsupported, and just like XP and 7 before it, the time will come when it's not practical or safe to use anymore. Even if you aren't scared by security risks, practicality will eventually become an issue you can't get around. Have fun trying to use XP in 2026 with modern programs and the Internet as an example. Windows 11 should technically work, but because it's unsupported, you're on your own if things break or when it comes time to upgrade to a new major version such as from 25H2 to 26H2. If you're not comfortable tinkering and the person you're giving this to isn't, you're better off purchasing a new Windows machine that's officially compatible. However, if you're comfortable tinkering and/or can assist a non-technical user, this is a great way to continue using perfectly good hardware.
Alternatively, you could install ChromeOS Flex or another Linux distribution and repurpose the computer for your own uses, but again, this comes down to how willing you are to tinker.

Yes, Win 11 is possible, even on old hardware like this. Also yes, it's a royal pain. I've done it for a macbook with bootcamp as well as older Windows desktops and laptops. As stated by others, if you have some pretty good tech skills, are comfortable tinkering, and can follow instructions, then go for it. But if you aren't, or if the person buying isn't comfortable doing all that, then sorry to say, it's probably best for your friend to just get a Windows laptop.

In case anyone is curious, it's possible to wipe the Mac drive and make Windows the primary OS. This is a great option if the Mac is no longer receiving macOS updates from Apple, since it won't get any UEFI firmware updates anymore, and you'll have more space for Windows and your data. However, it's important to note that you should have a copy of the BootCamp drivers downloaded prior to doing this, since you won't be able to boot into macOS to get them.
The way you do this is simple. Boot from your Windows USB drive and when you get to the part of setup to choose the disk, erase all the partitions and install Windows.
Of course, it goes without saying all your data will be erased, so make sure you have copies of important files on an external drive or secondary computer. I wouldn't worry about securely erasing the drive. Mac laptops from about 2013 and newer come with all solid-state storage, and I've heard performing the secure erase operation actually reduces the drive health. It should be enough to erase all partitions and install Windows. Even if remnants of old data are left behind, the new system will roll over all that, and as you continue using the computer over time, it will be overwritten with new data anyway. If you're really that paranoid about critical data falling into the wrong hands, physically destroy the SSD storage and completely replace it, assuming you can get to it, or better yet, encrypt your entire drive.

I've installed Windows 10 and 11 as the primary operating systems on my 2013 MacBook Air and it was fine. You have one of the last good Intel Macs before they switched to the T2 chip, Butterfly keyboard, and other ridiculous nonsense, so I expect it to run very similarly.
You can get macOS back in a couple ways.
The first is creating a bootable USB drive from macOS Monterey and keeping it in a safe place. You hold down Option and select it to boot.
The other way involves Internet Recovery, but this could stop working at any time and in fact may have as of this writing, especially since Apple is winding down Intel support. On my MacBook Air, I hold down Command-Option-r while the computer boots. It will ask you for a Wi-Fi network, and this process doesn't talk, so you'll need to use Aira, Be My Eyes, or get someone to help you. You essentially use the up and down arrow keys to navigate to the network you want, press enter, type your password, and press enter again to connect. The Mac will download the recovery image directly from Apple and boot it, but this might take a long time depending on the speed of your connection. Once it's finished, you can press Command-F5 to turn on VoiceOver.

Windows 10 and definitely 11 will require maintenance at some point. I wouldn't be comfortable giving a non-technical user an unsupported Windows 11 machine unless I was always there to fix problems in person. As I said before, you'll need to manually upgrade to major versions. This involves downloading the full installation image from Microsoft, and using tools like Rufus to add the various bypass mechanisms so the installer won't complain about the lack of TPM or Secure Boot, bypass the mandatory Microsoft account sign-in process which also lets you set things up without connecting to the Internet, etc. Once that's done, you run setup.exe and perform a standard in-place upgrade.
If you're not comfortable doing all that, and your friend definitely wouldn't be, just tell her to get a brand new Windows 11 machine.

The issue if the person is new to tech is that she will have a harder time updating Windows as new versions come out and Microsoft continues putting more restrictions in place wich seems likely based upon what they have already done. A person who is confident with tech and doesn't mind tinkering can get around a lot of this, but someone who does not feel comfortable doing this kind of thing should just stay away from this kind of machine. If you do everything right, get everything working, it could keep working for a while, but eventually they will need to update Windows, more than just your typical security stuff, like the big yearly release, and they won't be able to do that by themselves. Unless you are either going to sell this thing with the person understanding all of this, and sell it dirt cheap, or you are willing to keep doing the maintenance for the person in question, I wouldn't advise selling this kind of machine to a non techy.

We keep playing cat and mouse with Microsoft's so-called requirements, but it wouldn't surprise me if the day comes when this is no longer possible at all. It's such a shame Microsoft is so hostile when it comes to people wanting to use perfectly functional machines that can and do run 11 just fine, but the easiest option is giving in and purchasing a new PC, which is what Microsoft and their OEM partners ultimately want. Of course, Microsoft isn't the only party to blame. Apple is doing the exact same thing with macOS, and I'm increasingly worried the new Apple Silicon Macs will become paperweights when Apple inevitably pulls the plug, just like they do with the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, etc.