MP 1,1-5,1 cMP5.1 can’t start recovery - flashing folder question mark

[Nick021022]

Hey Guys.
I’ve tried to look every where to solve my issue but cannot get it started.

I have a cMP and I’ve just replaced the power supply and logic board due to a power surge.

Upon starting it displays the grey screen with a folder with a question mark in it. I understand that this means that it can’t find the boot volume.

Now there’s no data I want to keep so happy to recover the OS however no combination of keys on either a Mac/pc keyboard or a pc keyboard are bringing up the recovery.

am I missing something. Appreciate any help

cheers

 

[Nick021022]

I’ve now figured holding the Alt key on the pc keyboard will hold it on the grey screen and a mouse pointer shows however nothing else happens

 

[tsialex]

MP5,1 don't have Internet Recovery. If you can't access the Recovery partition of your main disk, you have to create a bootable USB with createinstallmedia with another Mac and the boot from it.

 

[Nick021022]

Thanks for that, I thought that’s what it would come to. How would I select the USB though once it’s inserted into the 5.1 without any recovery options?

 

[tsialex]

Thanks for that, I thought that’s what it would come to. How would I select the USB though once it’s inserted into the 5.1 without any recovery options?

If you don't have any boot-able disks, your Mac Pro will boot from the USB createinstallmedia automatically.

If you have a video card that has pre-boot configuration support you can always use BootPicker/BootSelector to select your bootable disk.

 

[Soba]

Thanks for that, I thought that’s what it would come to. How would I select the USB though once it’s inserted into the 5.1 without any recovery options?

Alex has great advice, and to clarify, the gray screen with a mouse pointer (accessed by holding Alt) that you described above is the BootPicker/BootSelector. This screen will show any bootable drive attached to your Mac, including a USB installer.

Just a heads-up: From the sound of it, you have a drive in your system that you were booting from before, but it apparently is no longer showing up after a power surge. If that’s the case, it’s quite probable your boot drive was also toasted by the surge. After you boot from your USB installer, run Disk Utility and see if your drive is showing up at all. (And double check that the drive is fully inserted into its slot and plugged in properly, just to eliminate the simplest possible cause.)

Good luck! I always recommend using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to protect equipment from surges.

 

[h9826790]

Can you provide some info about your storage setup?

e.g. HDD? SATA SSD? PCIe SSD?

Connect to a native SATA port? Via PCIe card?

Also, did you access the recovery partition with this keyboard before? Wired or wireless keyboard?