Chosen Solution
Hello community members, I recently got a used imac 27" from goodwill. To be specific Apple iMac 27-Inch “Core 2 Duo” 3.06 (Late 2009) Specs Identifiers: Late 2009 - MB952LL/A I figured I can reinstall my OS with my imac CD I’ve had from back in the day. Upon turning on the device I get a flashing folder with a question mark. This was to be expected. I popped in my disk and the drive made a weird scratching noise. The flashing icon would go away then it just sits at a white screen. I tried many different options from holding the power button for 10 second Command + R Shift + Command P + R Commend +N I did the thing where it dings on 2 time and I let go of the keys- nothing. Etc etc etc. I’ve tired every thing watched every video and I can’t seem to find the answer to fix my problem. When I hold Command + N I get a flashing globe icon but then it goes back to the flashing folder then stays solid. I can’t seem to get the system to show its disk utility or anything. I then tried the bootable flash drive method, but its been so difficult to get one onto a hard drive or find a version of an OS. I tired installing one on my drive wit ha program but ti didn’t work. The terminal method direction didn’t really help. I’m at a complete loss and might think I need to get a new Disk Drive for the iMac. But if I am seeing ? folder and flashing globe icons when pressing the correct function I assume it’s somewhat working. Any advice would be appreciated.
Do you have a FireWire HDD drive which you can setup as a bootable disk? You also need to work with the OS this system supports the highest is macOS High Sierra (10.13.6) You can get it from here How to get old versions of macOS. then follow this guide to convert it to a bootable file when you have copied it on your FireWire drive, but you do need to format the drive to GUID and a Journaled file system. Follow this guide to convert it How to create a bootable installer for macOS.
Hi Here what I do when I get this issue I get another Mac and install a modern version of macOS on to a usb hard drive ,then on the Mac that won’t install macOS I plug the hard drive in and turn the mac on and hold the ALT button on the keyboard,this will bring you to a screen that lets you select a boot drive ,you now need to select the drive with macOS on it. You should be in macOS now and download a installer for the version you want ,then you install onto the drive that originally doesn’t want to install. If this doesn’t work ,I would install superduper(it’s a drive cloner)and clone your usb hard drive to the one that originally wouldn’t take the install. Sorry about the MASSIVE explanation but if you need any help at all we are all here for you:-) Thanks:-)
