Question How can I factory restore a Macbook?

[Gorrillasnot]

My neighbor bought a Macbook online (i think through facebook some kinda marketplace? I dunno) anyway he wanted me to restore it to factory settings.
Anyways I followed a guide that said hold Comand + R while powering on, go to disk utilities and erase the Macintosh HD partition and then click reinstall macOS. it then asks for a apple ID which I put in my neighbors ID and password and then it gives me some kinda "This item is temporarily unavailable" message.
A quick google of the problem and I see posts sugesting that I should press Option + Command + R during bootup and that would bring me to internet recovery and I could install that way without needing a apple ID. Problem is that I never get the spinning world icon or anything that says Internet recovery.

Basically I think the problem is the macbook is looking for the ID of the original owner . That info I dont have.

Is there any way to factory restore this macbook short of buying a new OS and/or taking it to a apple store?

I've heard of using another mac to make a recovery USB key but I only have access to windows machines so that option is out.

I think El Capitan was the last OS that was on it if that makes a difference.

any help would be appreciated.

thanks

 

[TheStu]

What model MacBook is it?

 

[Gorrillasnot]

I believe it was a 2007 Macbook.
I manged to figure it out. Apparently this model is too old for the option + command + R thing to work.
I ended up figuring it out.
From my windows 7 PC I used TransMac to format and install Ell Capitan to a bootable USB drive then was able to boot the macbook and install El Capitan from the USB drive.

Here's the link to the guide I followed. https://www.wikigain.com/create-bootable-usb-installer-for-mac-transmac/

Thanks

 

[TheStu]

Glad it all worked out. As I recall, Internet Recovery was added in 2010, but wasn't back-ported to most older Macs.