Booting Into OS X Utilities

[promac123]

I recently tried to install Ubuntu on my iMac, using the latest version of OS X and Ubuntu (13.04). I downloaded rEFFIT and burned the .iso onto a CD. I forgot to make the partition before rebooting with the disk. I chose the install Ubuntu instead of to try Ubuntu. I have two hard drives. One is a 251 GB SSD and the other is a 2 TB SATA. I chose the second as the swap area. I really don't remember which one I chose to install Ubuntu on. After it was finished, I rebooted and it went into some OS X Utilities page instead of Ubuntu. The options included restoring from a Time Machine, Reinstalling OS X, the Disk Utility program, and getting help online. When I try to reinstall OS X, it only shows the Recover HD, which I cannot reinstall OS X on. My two hard drives don't show up there. I put the CD in and restarted while holding C. When I got to the install place, it said that I don't have any OS on the system. I installed it and restarted holding C again. Now it says that I have Ubuntu on the system, but whenever I restart, it goes into the OS X utilites page. Also, when I go to install Ubuntu and I get to the Installation type page, (where you partition stuff) my SSD shows up as /dev/sdb as the device, but everything else is blank. Instead of saying the type (swap, efit, etc...), size, used, and system, it's just white space.

Thanks in advance,
Whatever I Made my Name on This Forum Be

 

[Weaselboy]

It sounds like you had Mountain Lion on there and it is booting to the Recovery HD partition.

Once you get to that screen can you use Disk Utility to format the disk to Mac OS Extended?

If that won't work, do the C key boot to your Snow Leopard (?) installer disk you used then use Disk Utility from that. When you erase with Disk Util make sure you select the drive name (like Sandisk 250GB or whatever) so it formats the entire drive and not just Macintosh HD.

Do you happen to have a Time Machine backup from the Mountain Lion install? You could option key boot to that and run Disk Util from there to format the entire drive then restore.