2. Power On and Read the Screen

Five possible screens, each routing somewhere different. Find yours and follow it.

Whatever the Mac shows first tells you which path you're on. Find your screen below.

Power on
   │
   ├─ Padlock + password field ......... Scenario E → Step 3 (firmware password)
   ├─ macOS Utilities window ........... Scenario D → Step 5 (already in Recovery)
   ├─ Hello / Setup Assistant .......... Scenario A → Step 4
   ├─ Someone's desktop / logged in .... Scenario B → Step 6 (booted, best case)
   ├─ Login screen, password unknown ... Scenario C → Step 4
   └─ Nothing / no display ............. Apple Diagnostics, then Step 4

Scenario A — Welcome / Setup Screen

Country selection, the Hello animation, or Setup Assistant.

Do not complete setup

Creating an account here costs time and has to be undone later.

Note whether Setup Assistant asks for a previous owner's Apple ID — that means Activation Lock is on, and it's the only way to read lock state without booting. See Step 8.
Note whether a Remote Management screen appears — that means DEP/MDM supervision.
Boot into Recovery instead → Step 4.

Scenario B — Existing User Desktop

Already logged in, or the password is known. This is the best case: every command works and battery data is reliable.

Apple menu → About This Mac for fast identification.
Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and run the intake commands.
Use system_profiler SPPowerDataType for battery — no unit interpretation needed.

Skip ahead to Step 6.

Scenario C — Locked / Unknown Password

Boot Recovery and gather hardware data — none of it needs the account password.
Evaluate Activation Lock / MDM status before planning an erase.

Continue to Step 4.

Scenario D — Boots Straight Into Recovery

The Mac goes directly to the macOS Utilities window without you holding any keys. You didn't do anything wrong — the Mac couldn't find a bootable system and fell back to recoveryOS on its own.

Three causes, distinguishable in Step 5:

What you'll find	Cause
Disk Utility shows a healthy disk with no `Macintosh HD` volume	Previously erased — normal for a wiped trade-in
A `Macintosh HD` volume exists but won't boot	Corrupt system volume — try First Aid
No internal physical disk listed at all	SSD failed or was removed — flag it, this is a parts unit

You're already where Step 4 was trying to get you, so skip it → Step 5.

Scenario E — Padlock and a Password Field

A grey padlock icon above a single password box, appearing instead of the Apple logo. This is a firmware password, and it blocks Recovery, external boot, and startup-disk changes until it's entered.

Intel only. Apple Silicon has no firmware password — a password prompt on an M-series Mac is FileVault or the account password, not firmware.

Record Firmware Locked = Yes and go clear it → Step 3.