resetting macbook to factory settings

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I have to reset my early 2012 Macbook pro to it's factory settings. The Macbook was delivered without any software on disk(s). According to the manual (page 58) I have to select Disk utility in the Utilities pane. Then I have to select the Mac OS extended (Journaled) from the pop up menu, but it stays "grey" and I can't select it.

Does anyone know if there's a way to restart the Macbook in such a way that the to-be-selected option does work??

Thanx!!
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
First, why do you have to reset your 2012 MBP back to factory settings? Are you having some difficulty with it?

In order to perform any maintenance on your MBP you have to boot the machine to the Recovery partition. You can not use Disk Utility while the system is running and the drive is mounted. Booting to the Recovery partition is accomplished by holding down the command key plus the R key as soon as you hear the bong sound. From there you can access Disk Utility.
 
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I installed OSX Mountain Lion and since then I face some problems. Esp the use of the encrypted USB token which I use to log on to the server at my work doesn't work anymore. i keep on getting the message that the certificate is outdated while everything works normal on my Windows PC. So I thought to restore to factory settings and re-instal the software that came with the token to make it work again
 
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Mac Mini Core i7 2012 | White 2009 MacBook 2 Ghz | 733 Mhz G4 Quicksilver
You cannot reformat a disk that is your start-up volume.

You'll have to boot up from the restore DVD and select Disk Utility from the file menu when you get to the install window

Make sure you have backed up your files and apps before reformatting
 

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