12

Referring to this question: Restore MacBook Pro to factory settings without disc, I find it rather reckless to post an answer to an OP that obviously does not know what the effects will be.

Should such an answer be flagged or deleted, even with a warning? I'd say yes.

Included copy below in case of answer deletion.

Q:

Restore MacBook Pro to factory settings without disc Is there a way of restoring a MacBook Pro to it's factory settings without a disc? I want all files deleted and it to basically be like I just received it from Apple.

I know you can do it with Dell machines - surely you can with Apple machines?

A I'm referring to:

WARNING, the below command will erase every file in your drive root.

This includes system files, personal files and application files and can not be reversed. That being said,

sudo rm -rf /

Closest you're going to get without a disk.

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  • I'm a little concerned about (new) users posting links to files from unofficial, unknown sources with no verification. Would this sort of answer fall into this category as well? I flagged this post for this reason and would like to know if I (and everyone) should keep doing this. This might need it's own question but is there a policy in place regarding providing links to files from potentially unsafe sources?
    – Jeff Mercado
    Commented Jan 5, 2011 at 1:27
  • @JeffM If you feel it's a potentially unsafe link, I think you should feel free to flag it.
    – Pylsa
    Commented Jan 5, 2011 at 16:49

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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If it seems it's intentionally malicious, I would delete the answer to protect random users with less knowledge about command line tools.

So if you spot any, flag them for mod attention, so we can delete them

If you consider it a borderline case, use your editing privilege to add a warning and leave a comment explaining why.

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  • 5
    Additionally I'd leave a comment in place or to warn everyone or even edit the warning in until the deletion kicks in ... I mean until the mods kick the answer.
    – Bobby
    Commented Jan 4, 2011 at 8:33

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