Can I install Mac OS X on a blank SSD without any backups? I have a late 2012 mac mini whose hardrive was causing me lot of issues. I decided to move onto Linux and I have formatted the complete hard drive and installed Linux on it. I would like to get back to OSX and I have decided to upgrade my harddrive to an SSD.

The question is how can I do it. I do not have any backups. I do have access to a macbook pro which can be used to create a bootable USB stick.

Can i just boot using the option command and install Mac OS X from the USB onto the new SSD or should I be aware of any tricky situations?
If you have a bootable USB stick yes you will be able to install it onto the new SSD by holding down the option key at startup and selecting it.

The command to create an installer USB varies slightly on the version:


https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201372


Alternatively your Mac mini is recent enough that you use macOS Recovery over the Internet