• Re: What does "Reinstall macOS" do, exactly?

    From David B.@BoaterDave@hotmail.co.uk to alt.computer.workshop,comp.sys.mac.system on Sat Jul 12 08:07:59 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

    On 18/08/2024 23:14, T i m wrote:
    On 18/08/2024 22:42, David Brooks wrote:

    <snip>

    How many folk realise that
    reinstalling the macOS will NOT eradicate any previously installed
    malware?

    Anyone who has a clue re what they are doing around computers.

    See, if you understood what an OS was and what isn't part of the OS
    (like the personal info you state is still present), what part of it
    don't you understand?

    If you replace the water feature in your back garden, did you expect all
    the weeds to disappear as well?

    Cheers, T i m

    I've just done this:-

    davidbrooks@DavidBs-iMac ~ % diskutil resetFusion


    Internally-located hardware disk devices known to the currently-running
    macOS:
    Rotational (disk1)
    Solid State (disk0)

    Volumes exported by partitions or storage systems hosted on the above
    devices:
    APPLE SSD SM0128L Media (disk0s2)
    Storage (disk2s1)

    disk0 will be used as the "main" ("faster") device
    disk1 will be used as the "secondary" ("larger") device

    WARNING: All of the above will be erased
    Do you want to continue? (Enter "Yes" to proceed to erase) Yes

    Force-unmounting all volumes on the chosen "main" ("faster") disk device Started on disk0
    Finished on disk0
    Force-unmounting all volumes on the chosen "secondary" ("larger") disk
    device
    Started on disk1
    Finished on disk1
    Creating a new partition map on the "main" ("faster") disk device
    Started on disk0
    Unmounting disk
    Creating the partition map
    Waiting for partitions to activate
    Finished on disk0
    Partition disk0s2 will be the "main" ("faster") APFS Physical Store
    Creating a new partition map on the "secondary" ("larger") disk device
    Started on disk1
    Unmounting disk
    Creating the partition map
    Waiting for partitions to activate
    Finished on disk1
    Partition disk1s2 will be the "secondary" ("larger") APFS Physical Store Creating an APFS Fusion Container importing two partitions
    Started on disk0s2
    Creating a new empty APFS Container
    Unmounting Volumes
    Switching disk0s2 to APFS
    Switching disk1s2 to APFS
    Creating APFS Container
    FusionLC autodetect: regular Fusion
    Created new APFS Container disk2
    Finished on disk0s2
    The new APFS Container is disk2
    Adding a logical APFS Volume to the APFS Container
    Started on disk2
    Preparing to add APFS Volume to APFS Container disk2
    Creating APFS Volume
    Created new APFS Volume disk2s1
    Mounting APFS Volume
    Setting volume permissions
    Finished on disk2
    The new APFS Volume exported by the APFS Container is disk2s1
    Confirmed that your new volume "Macintosh HD" (disk2s1) is a Fusion Drive Operation successful; you should now install macOS

    =

    *Complicated, isn't it*? 🙂

    I'll list this other information here in case I need it later:-

    Last login: Sat Jul 12 07:52:32 on ttys001 davidbrooks@DavidBs-iMac ~ % diskutil list
    /dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
    #: TYPE NAME SIZE
    IDENTIFIER
    0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0
    1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB disk0s1
    2: Apple_APFS Container disk2 121.0 GB disk0s2

    /dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
    #: TYPE NAME SIZE
    IDENTIFIER
    0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk1
    1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1
    2: Apple_APFS Container disk2 2.0 TB disk1s2

    /dev/disk2 (synthesized):
    #: TYPE NAME SIZE
    IDENTIFIER
    0: APFS Container Scheme - +2.1 TB disk2
    Physical Stores disk0s2, disk1s2
    1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 819.2 KB disk2s1

    /dev/disk3 (external, physical):
    #: TYPE NAME SIZE
    IDENTIFIER
    0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk3
    1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1
    2: Apple_APFS Container disk4 1000.0 GB disk3s2

    /dev/disk4 (synthesized):
    #: TYPE NAME SIZE
    IDENTIFIER
    0: APFS Container Scheme - +1000.0 GB disk4
    Physical Store disk3s2
    1: APFS Volume External HD - Data 461.8 GB disk4s1
    2: APFS Volume Preboot 2.2 GB disk4s2
    3: APFS Volume Recovery 1.2 GB disk4s3
    4: APFS Volume Macintosh HD (Ext) 9.3 GB disk4s4
    5: APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 9.3 GB
    disk4s4s1
    6: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk4s6

    /dev/disk5 (external, physical):
    #: TYPE NAME SIZE
    IDENTIFIER
    0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk5
    1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk5s1
    2: Apple_APFS Container disk6 2.0 TB disk5s2

    /dev/disk6 (synthesized):
    #: TYPE NAME SIZE
    IDENTIFIER
    0: APFS Container Scheme - +2.0 TB disk6
    Physical Store disk5s2
    1: APFS Volume My Book 1.9 TB disk6s2

    /dev/disk7 (external, physical):
    #: TYPE NAME SIZE
    IDENTIFIER
    0: CD_partition_scheme *804.4 MB disk7
    1: Apple_partition_scheme 700.4 MB disk7s0
    2: Apple_partition_map 32.3 KB
    disk7s0s1
    (free space) 377.3 MB -
    3: Apple_HFS WD SmartWare 320.7 MB
    disk7s0s2

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  • From David B.@BoaterDave@hotmail.co.uk to alt.computer.workshop,comp.sys.mac.system on Sat Jul 12 12:36:02 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

    On 12/07/2025 08:07, David B. wrote:
    On 18/08/2024 23:14, T i m wrote:
    On 18/08/2024 22:42, David Brooks wrote:

    <snip>

    How many folk realise that
    reinstalling the macOS will NOT eradicate any previously installed
    malware?

    Anyone who has a clue re what they are doing around computers.

    See, if you understood what an OS was and what isn't part of the OS
    (like the personal info you state is still present), what part of it
    don't you understand?

    If you replace the water feature in your back garden, did you expect
    all the weeds to disappear as well?

    Cheers, T i m

    I've just done this:-

    davidbrooks@DavidBs-iMac ~ % diskutil resetFusion

    [snipped important facts! for brevity!)

    Resetting Fusion is supposed to *erase all data* from both the spinning
    disk and the internal SSD.

    However, having reinstalled macOS Ventura (from the Apple servers) I now
    have all my software programmes (applications) available, just as they
    were before.

    Perhaps "Tim" will be able to explain why that should be.

    (David actually knows!)
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