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2010 Mac Mini, DEAD HDD can't restore/recover/install OS

wgr73

wgr73

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 31, 2005
750
74
New Mexico
I'm stuck guys. The HDD that was in it is gone, nothing recoverable. Have a new HDD now. I formatted/partitioned it in preparation for using the restore discs it came with. Whenever I hold "C" to boot from disc nothing happens. I tried internet restore and the globe comes up, then it just goes away. Seems like this doesn't want to restore anything!...not even from the factory discs. Any suggestions?
 
panzer06

panzer06

macrumors 68040
Sep 23, 2006
3,282
229
Kilrath
Have you tried holding down ALT/Option key and seeing if the list of available boot choices includes the restore disk?

Cheers,
 
Fishrrman

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,346
12,462
I know it's a little late now, but this is why the savvy Mac user keeps a BOOTABLE CLONE of the internal drive nearby.

If you had had a bootable clone backup drive, you could have connected it and you would have been back up and running in the span of about 3 minutes.

Go forth, and learn!
 
wgr73

wgr73

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 31, 2005
750
74
New Mexico
panzer06 said:
Have you tried holding down ALT/Option key and seeing if the list of available boot choices includes the restore disk?

Cheers,
Click to expand...

I have tried this, nothing comes up. All I get is a blank white screen or a flashing question mark.

Fishrrman said:
I know it's a little late now, but this is why the savvy Mac user keeps a BOOTABLE CLONE of the internal drive nearby.

If you had had a bootable clone backup drive, you could have connected it and you would have been back up and running in the span of about 3 minutes.

Go forth, and learn!
Click to expand...

Absoltely, and for my own personal Mac I have this. This is a friends computer ;)

I even tried restoring my 10.9 cloned machine to hers and it kernel panics....I expected that with the newer hardware.
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,137
15,602
California
wgr73 said:
I'm stuck guys. The HDD that was in it is gone, nothing recoverable. Have a new HDD now. I formatted/partitioned it in preparation for using the restore discs it came with. Whenever I hold "C" to boot from disc nothing happens. I tried internet restore and the globe comes up, then it just goes away. Seems like this doesn't want to restore anything!...not even from the factory discs. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

If you have updated the firmware on your Mini it should have Internet recovery and from your description of the globe it sounds like you do.

How did you format the new drive?

You should be able to hold command-option-r at boot and get the globe then the recovery console should come up. From there you can use Disk Util to erase the drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) then quit Disk Util and click reinstall OS X.
 
panzer06

panzer06

macrumors 68040
Sep 23, 2006
3,282
229
Kilrath
How about trying an external USB DVD drive to boot from? Or creating that Mavericks install USB onto a USB stick?

Cheers,
 
wgr73

wgr73

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 31, 2005
750
74
New Mexico
Weaselboy said:
If you have updated the firmware on your Mini it should have Internet recovery and from your description of the globe it sounds like you do.

How did you format the new drive?

You should be able to hold command-option-r at boot and get the globe then the recovery console should come up. From there you can use Disk Util to erase the drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) then quit Disk Util and click reinstall OS X.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing they did update the firmware, I can't confirm this thought.

I used my MBA with disk util, GUID partition table, 2 partitions (1 for boot/os and 1 for recovery...if I can ever get this to work).

panzer06 said:
How about trying an external USB DVD drive to boot from? Or creating that Mavericks install USB onto a USB stick?

Cheers,
Click to expand...

Tried this as well. Should've added that to the OP
 
panzer06

panzer06

macrumors 68040
Sep 23, 2006
3,282
229
Kilrath
wgr73 said:
I'm guessing they did update the firmware, I can't confirm this thought.

I used my MBA with disk util, GUID partition table, 2 partitions (1 for boot/os and 1 for recovery...if I can ever get this to work).

Tried this as well. Should've added that to the OP
Click to expand...

That's really odd that it won't recognize external USB install sources at all. I've never seen that.

Have you tried prayer, chicken sacrifices, jumping on one foot while reciting the pledge of allegiance backwards? :rolleyes: :confused:

Cheers,
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,137
15,602
California
wgr73 said:
I used my MBA with disk util, GUID partition table, 2 partitions (1 for boot/os and 1 for recovery...if I can ever get this to work).
Click to expand...

If you mean the hidden 650MB recovery utility OS X installs, you don't need to make a partition for that. Just erase the drive to one partition and the OS X install will make and install the recovery partition.
 
wgr73

wgr73

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 31, 2005
750
74
New Mexico
Weaselboy said:
If you mean the hidden 650MB recovery utility OS X installs, you don't need to make a partition for that. Just erase the drive to one partition and the OS X install will make and install the recovery partition.
Click to expand...

Yup.

I can't get the OS X install to even run. Once I'm able to get it to run then I'll use disk util there.
 
S

sukidabe

macrumors newbie
Aug 19, 2011
7
1
Snow Leopard ? If so, Hellhammer has a how to in Mac Guides. The one in Site and Forum Feedback. Something about the ALT key.
 
T

tdk337

macrumors newbie
Mar 13, 2014
1
0
So you replaced the internal drive or is it still in there? A defective drive prevented my laptop to boot even to CD previously.

What happens if you unplug the hard drive completely? Will it boot to CD then? Maybe the hard drive isn't bad. Maybe it's the hard drive interface on the logic board.
 
marzer

marzer

macrumors 65816
Nov 14, 2009
1,398
123
Colorado
tdk337 said:
So you replaced the internal drive or is it still in there? A defective drive prevented my laptop to boot even to CD previously.

What happens if you unplug the hard drive completely? Will it boot to CD then? Maybe the hard drive isn't bad. Maybe it's the hard drive interface on the logic board.
Click to expand...

I second this. Had a hard drive go bad in a previous iMac and it gave me trouble trying to boot from the Superdrive or external media. Lead me to believe there was a logic board problem. Fortunately, the LB was good just the hard drive had gone bad.
 
A

Alrescha

macrumors 68020
Jan 1, 2008
2,156
317
marzer said:
Had a hard drive go bad in a previous iMac and it gave me trouble trying to boot from the Superdrive or external media.
Click to expand...

Same here. I have had hard drives die in two Mac minis and in each case the machine would not boot from the optical drive until the hard drive was replaced.

A.
 
B

barkmonster

macrumors 68020
Dec 3, 2001
2,134
15
Lancashire
Fishrrman said:
I know it's a little late now, but this is why the savvy Mac user keeps a BOOTABLE CLONE of the internal drive nearby.

If you had had a bootable clone backup drive, you could have connected it and you would have been back up and running in the span of about 3 minutes.

Go forth, and learn!
Click to expand...

I agree. Destroyed my whole setup trying to dual boot Mavericks and Snow Leopard internally. It messed up permissions on a shared drive, kernel panicked after the system decided to chose the boot partition of disk0 with disk1/disk0 with disk 1. Cloned back from a bootable backup, ran the 4 UNIX commands for resetting a locked disk and realised Mavericks was trash. Now have Snow Leopard still internally and Mountain Lion on another external disk I made with the clone. I would have been utterly screwed if I didn't!
 
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