You're having trouble with your old iMac...
You're having trouble with your old iMac...
He said his friend’s iMac model A1312 was broken because the hard drive failed. After several attempts to boot and check for OS, it kept showing no operating system and had no repair options. Eventually he tried using a different drive, but still faced issues with finding the correct drive or starting up. He’s been trying to restore it himself without success, and is unsure if the problem is fixable or if the system is permanently lost. Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated.
I’m reviewing your steps to confirm understanding:
1. You had the iMac with a suspected failed HDD.
2. It booted without any operating system drives detected.
3. Recovery Mode was reached, but the OS section was empty.
4. You tried booting from an external drive running OS X 10.6 as a bootable media or installer.
5A. The external OS X 10.6 failed.
5B. The OS X 10.6 on the external HDD also failed.
Are you sure about these details?
Additional questions:
1. Is the internal HDD now empty?
2. Was the external drive intended for installation or just a boot source?
3. Have you replaced the original hard drive?
If the internal drive has stopped working (and some of the 1TB Seagate drives used in these iMacs were prone to failure), you'll need to remove the machine and swap the faulty drive. After that, you should install macOS. I wouldn't waste time on Snow Leopard, even as a first choice. Instead, use an installer for macOS High Sierra.
That procedure is accurate. Regarding the questions:
1. The internal HDD I installed has the 10.6 installer file, but no other data on it.
2. Both external and internal drives had the 10.6 installer available, since I couldn't obtain a copy of the actual operating system.
3. I swapped in the original internal drive from the package it came with; I recently used that drive to install Linux, confirming it's not a failed unit.
Sure, just share the serial number of your iMac. It’s usually found on the bottom of the stand and provides all the necessary details. Let me know if you need help interpreting it once you have it!
I swapped in my personal hard drive, which functioned fine. When testing a more advanced operating system, they said the newest MacOS versions didn’t work and advised reverting to the original OS before updating.
You can try it. Whether you need the installer or the operating system depends on your setup. I think you already have a bootable USB for Mac and used the TransMac app on Windows.