Can't Boot into Recovery Mode Mac Mini mid-2011

[141819]

Hello!

I'm a long, long-time reader and enjoyer of MacRumors, but this is my first post. I've had many questions answered by others' posts in the past, but I couldn't find an answer to this one in the forums (or anywhere else on the Internet, for that matter).

Anyway, my parents have a mid-2011 Mac Mini that is all but dead. It won't boot using any key combination, and no amount of resets has changed its status. I've already gotten them set up with a new Mini, but I'd like to try and sell the old one for parts. Unfortunately, I can't get the machine to boot into Recovery Mode or Internet Recovery Mode to be able to wipe the hard drive. With Internet Recovery Mode, I can connect to a WiFi network, then the status bar with a spinning globe completes, then I see a blue-tinted apple with a spinning wheel underneath it, then the screen turns grey but is blank.

In summary, I don't necessarily need either Recovery Mode to work if there's any other way to wipe the drive (save for just removing the drive and calling it a day). Does anyone have any suggestions? I chatted with Apple Support, and they finally told me to take it to a local computer repair shop to see if they could do anything.

Thanks in advance!

 

[treekram]

From another Mac, you can download High Sierra and create a bootable installer on a USB flash drive. (If you already have a bootable installer of High Sierra or earlier macOS version, you can use that.) The bootable install program can run Disk Utility and from there you can erase the HDD - if the HDD is working.

High Sierra download (requires working version of the App Store app). This will download into the Applications directory as "Install macOS High Sierra" (or something to that effect). If, after the installer downloads, it asks to start the install process, just cancel it.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208969

After you have the installer downloaded, you can create a bootable installer:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

After this is done, take the flash drive to the 2011 Mini and restart it, holding down the Option key. It should present the flash drive as a bootable disk. Select it and you should get into the installer program. You can select "Utilities" from the menu at the top and then select "Disk Utility".

If this doesn't work, you can take the HDD out of the Mini and sell it without it or install another HDD and try to install the OS (may not be worth the cost of the HDD). Unfortunately, it's not easy to do this and you would need some extra tools that most people don't have. The following is a link which shows what's involved.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+mini+Mid+2011+Hard+Drive+Replacement/6422

 

[141819]

Thank you very much! I will give that a try.