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Odeezl

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 16, 2016
2
0
Hello,

I received 2 older imac computers that both are running windows 7 (not bootcamp or dual boot)

I would like to install OS X back on these machines. I have a bootable USB with OS X ready to install but I can't seem to understand how to actually do it.

I have tried press and hold "c" while booting and got to a "grub". Everything I tried under "grub" did not seem to work (all from research, I have no coding experience at all.) like: root (hd1,0) etc' But nothing work, I kept getting this message: "kernel must be loaded before booting"

Can anyone help me understand what would be the best and easiest way to install OS X back on these imac machines.

Thanks for the help.
 

jonen560ti

macrumors member
Dec 29, 2015
58
19
i suspect they may have wiped the recovery partition which adds a few complications. Grub is a bootloader, sort of a tiny os that exists to boot OS`s and to serve as a recovery point. commonly used to give users an easy way of making it easy to manage several OS`s on one machine.


first off, check for the recovery partition, hold the left alt key as the mac boots and see if it has a boot option named recovery
 

Odeezl

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 16, 2016
2
0
i suspect they may have wiped the recovery partition which adds a few complications. Grub is a bootloader, sort of a tiny os that exists to boot OS`s and to serve as a recovery point. commonly used to give users an easy way of making it easy to manage several OS`s on one machine.


first off, check for the recovery partition, hold the left alt key as the mac boots and see if it has a boot option named recovery

Thanks Mate, that worked for me! I was testing all the keys apart from the Alt key :)
I really appreciate you help.
 

jonen560ti

macrumors member
Dec 29, 2015
58
19
How can you install windoze without bootcamp?!? :eek:o_O

boot from USB, go through the wizard, the standard way you would install on any PC. its not like bootcamp is emulating Windows or anything. its really just there to hold your hand through the process
 
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