Firmware upgrade from boot USB ?

[Wiley1]

I'm still struggling with my mid-2010 iMac, model A1311. I have been unable to get any OS to install from USB successfully. None of Cmd-R, Cmd-Opt-R, or Cmd-Opt-Cntrl-R works. I've tried both El Capitan and High Sierra. I would try Yosemite and Lion if I could find a place to download them.
.
According to this link: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201518
My iMac is eligible for a firmware upgrade that will (should?) enable the Internet Recovery thing.
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But, it also says that I need OS X 10.9.5. Huh? My hard disk is erased. If I had a working OS, I wouldn't need this firmware update.
.
Is there any way to run a DMG file from a boot disk? Where can I find the instructions?

 

[chrfr]

I'm still struggling with my mid-2010 iMac, model A1311. I have been unable to get any OS to install from USB successfully. None of Cmd-R, Cmd-Opt-R, or Cmd-Opt-Cntrl-R works.

To boot from a USB installer, start up holding the option key and then select the USB device in the boot picker that comes up. The other options will attempt to start from recovery, not USB.
Later software updates will install newer firmware that supersede the one that says it requires Mavericks 10.9.5.

 

[Wiley1]

To boot from a USB installer, start up holding the option key and then select the USB device in the boot picker that comes up.

I am not having any trouble booting from USB. That works nicely. In fact, I can boot with nothing, wait for the flashing question mark, then insert the USB. It finds the USB and reboots from it immediately and automatically.

My problems start after the count-down to 1 second remaining and 0 seconds remaining. Eventually it fails with the error "An error occurring while preparing the installation". This has happened with El Capitan and High Sierra, whether I am trying to install to internal HD or external HD.

My questions are:
Why can't I use Internet Recovery?
Can I upgrade this firmware (or Utility Partition) to be able to use Internet Recovery?

 

[Wiley1]

Anybody? Bueller?
[doublepost=1529586921][/doublepost]If I take this thing to the Genius Store, what are they going to do with it?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP asked:
"If I take this thing to the Genius Store, what are they going to do with it?"

There's a very big chance they're going to tell you that it's now an "obsolete" model and they no longer service them.

Now, a very important question:
Do you have access to a DIFFERENT, WORKING Mac?

If you do, it will make it easier to get the 2010 up-and-running again (unless it has some kind of hardware failure inside).

Without that, things are going to become more difficult, but not impossible.

Answer my question first, then we'll go on from there.

 

[treekram]

Have you seen this article:
https://blog.macsales.com/31640-tech-tip-an-error-occurred-while-preparing-the-installation-fix

If your iMac has a battery for the clock, if the battery died, your iMac won't keep time. The time is usually reset when your Mac boots and connects to a time server, however, I don't know if it does that when a bootable installer is used.

There may also be a case whereby you need to set the date backwards for El Capitan. If the above doesn't work, if you're doing El Capitan, look for the introduction date of Sierra and set it to that date. The current date should be fine for a High Sierra install.

If setting the date doesn't work, you might want to search the Internet for:
mac osx "An error occurring while preparing the installation"

 

[Wiley1]

OP asked:
Do you have access to a DIFFERENT, WORKING Mac?
There's a very big chance they're going to tell you that it's now an "obsolete" model and they no longer service them.

I have been creating the bootable USB's on a MacBook using DiskMaker X. But, as you know, the App Store has become really snitty about who is allowed to download what.

I'm at the "Genius" Bar now. Been here for 5 hours. As it turns out, Apple will work on any machine, totally free, as long as it doesn't have a hardware problem. They plugged it into their LAN where it booted right off the NIC -- no USB. Then they ran a hardware diagnostic which passed.

They asked me what OS I wanted and I said High Sierra (why not?). It got past the place where it was failing on me, rebooted itself, and went into the "14 minutes remaining" thing. That was 3 hours ago and it now says 11 minutes. At the rate of 3 minutes every 3 hours, I am going to be sitting in this mall for 11 more hours -- waay past closing time. They are getting sick of looking at it and they are starting to make comments like "we don't have any parts for this thing" and "your HD might be bad". They won't allow me to leave because they "don't want to be responsible" for my machine.

Perhaps they aren't "geniuses" after all?

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd strongly suggest "something lower" than High Sierra for a 2010 iMac.
Either "El Cap" (10.11) or "Low" Sierra (10.12).

Just wondering -- can you still boot to either the recovery partition or to internet recovery?

What I'd suggest:
- use either an external USB drive OR a USB flashdrive 16gb or larger
- boot to internet recovery or the recovery partition
- use Disk Utility to erase the external drive to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled (GUID partition format)
- open the installer, and "aim it" at the EXTERNAL drive, and see if the installer will install a copy of the OS onto it (ANY version of the OS, this doesn't matter)
- if the install goes through, see if you can get it set up with an account.

The idea here is to create an EXTERNAL DRIVE that is "bootable to the finder".
Then, see if you can boot the iMac that way.
This doesn't solve the problem with the iMac (yet), but it will be A BIG STEP FORWARD in "getting towards the solution".

This is worth trying, if you can do it.

 

[Wiley1]

Right now, I am still trying to determine whether the Utility Partition was erased by Disk Utility.
My next step might be to pull the drive out of the machine and erase it using a Windows partition utility.

The Genius Bar was a total disaster. I was in the mall for 9.5 hours yesterday because they refuse to work on a software issue unless you sit there and watch them the whole time. Nobody there mentioned that High Sierra might be a poor choice for that model but, from what I've seen, I am ready to agree with you.

When the place closed, they unplugged my machine with "1 minute remaining". When I brought it back to my shop, it went into a screen that said "Installing. 44 minutes remaining". This morning, it says it has 33 minutes to go. What in the world did it do all night? What will it do if I let it go the whole weekend? I'm inclined to turn it off and try something else.

A few weeks ago, I had a machine of the exact same model, also with Deep Freeze. That one didn't give me much trouble. I booted to an El Capitan USB, erased the drive, rebooted, performed the clean install, then later upgraded it to High Sierra. That machine is back in the Business Center working nicely. The question now? What is different about this machine?

Neither machine has ever responded to Cmd-R or Cmd-Opt-R or Cmd-Cntl-Opt-R, either because it is too old or because the Utility Partition is damaged or missing.

I think I will put a totally blank HD in this machine and try the El Capitan USB clean-install again. I can always go back to the "Geniuses" when it fails.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I think I will put a totally blank HD in this machine and try the El Capitan USB clean-install again."

There is NO NEED to go to an extreme like this until you know that the drive has suffered a hardware failure.

Again -- if you can't boot to the recovery partition, can you get to "internet recovery"?
Press the power-on button and IMMEDIATELY hold down the command, option, and R keys and keep holding them down a while.

Does this work?
IMPORTANT: I'm not sure if internet recovery was available yet on a mid-2010 iMac. It might not have arrived until the 2011 models.
The only way to know is if you try it.

Try it and get back to us.
If it doesn't work, there are other courses of action that can be taken.

 

[Wiley1]

Are you reading my posts?
Twice I've mentioned that Cmd-Option-R does nothing. Is there some other way to get to an Internet Recovery?
Internet is available to this machine, both WiFi & Ethernet. It can access the Internet if it wants to.

I've been in this business for 39 years. A long time ago, I learned that when dealing with incompetent support people and they ask you to do something worthless, you'd better do it, or if you are really confident, you can lie and say you did it. If you argue with them, you can't get on to the next step.

My logic goes something like this:
1. We know that another machine of the same model worked nicely and this one doesn't. Something is different about this one. It could be hardware, but it could also be something with the way the HD is partitioned.
2. Parts are no longer available for this model and the Geniuses love to point that out.
3. The most likely cause of this issue is a HD problem, either a bad partition or bad hardware. The HD is also the only part that I am willing to replace. By putting a clean HD into it, I've eliminated the possibility of a bad partition.
3. I don't trust the Apple Disk Utility to do what it says it does.
4. When I go back to the Geniuses, I can tell them that the HD is new (or at least new-er than the one that came out).

Another thing I learned a long time ago:
It is usually better to do something, even if it turns out to be wrong, than to do nothing at all.

 

[Fishrrman]

Why not boot from a bootable external drive and see what happens?

That's the FIRST THING I will always do with a Mac "that won't boot"...

 

[Wiley1]

Why not boot from a bootable external drive and see what happens?

If I had one of those lying around in my junk box, I would definitely try that.
I am able to boot into my "Install El Capitan" USB drive.
But, when I try to install the OS to an external drive, it fails, just like it did when attempting to install to the internal drive.

Are you suggesting that I connect an external HD to a MacBook and install the OS to that device?
Even if that works, will an iMac be able to boot from it and run properly?

 

[Fishrrman]

"Are you suggesting that I connect an external HD to a MacBook and install the OS to that device?
Even if that works, will an iMac be able to boot from it and run properly?"

I'll tell you what I'd try next.
I don't know if you have the resources with which to do this.

I would go to ANOTHER, working Mac.
I would then take an external hard drive and install a clean copy of the OS onto it.
I would use ANY version of the OS that can boot the "problem Mac". Preferably it would be a version that could boot BOTH MACS.

I would set up the external drive with a "temporary administrative account".
By that I mean it would be an account that could be deleted later on if need be.
I wouldn't install ANY additional software to it yet (with the exception of CCC, read on).
I would get it "bootable on the second Mac".
Once I know the drive is "bootable to finder" (it MUST BE bootable "to the finder", and NOT to just "the OS installer"), I would download CarbonCopyCloner from here:
http://www.bombich.com/download.html
(there are several versions available, download the one pertinent to your needs)

Now....
I'd take my "known bootable" external drive and connect it to the "problem Mac".
Press the power on button and immediately hold down the option key and keep holding it down until the startup manager appears.
Then, IF the external drive shows up as a bootable option, select it with the pointer and hit return.
Does it get to the login screen?
Does it get to the finder?

IF I got it booted up, I'd do this next:
I'd open Disk Utility and ERASE the internal drive. I'd NUKE IT BACK TO NOTHING. Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format.
The internal drive should now be "empty", in HFS+.
Next, I'd open CarbonCopyCloner.
I'd accept all of CCC's defaults.
I'd select the EXTERNAL drive as my source, and the internal drive as my target.
Then, I'd let CCC do its thing.

CCC will probably ask if you wish to clone over the recovery partition as well.
GREAT! This is just what I'd do. CCC will add a recovery partition and put the necessary software onto it.

When CCC is done, I'd power down, all the way off. I'd disconnect the external drive.
Then, I'd press the power-on key and IMMEDIATELY hold down the option key and keep holding it down until the startup manager appears.
If the internal drive is there "as a bootable drive", I'd select it with the pointer and hit return.
Now.... the moment of truth.
Does the internal drive boot up to login screen?
Can you enter a password and get to the finder?
If it does, THIS IS WHAT WE WANT.
I'd next open System Preferences/Startup disk and re-select the internal as the boot drive.
Then... I'd power down all the way off, and press the power on button
Can you login and get to the finder?
If so....
DONE.

 

[Wiley1]

I would then take an external hard drive and install a clean copy of the OS onto it.
I wouldn't install ANY additional software to it yet (with the exception of CCC, read on).
I would get it "bootable on the second Mac".
Once I know the drive is "bootable to finder" (it MUST BE bootable "to the finder", and NOT to just "the OS installer"), I would download CarbonCopyCloner from here:
http://www.bombich.com/download.html

IF I got it booted up, I'd do this next:
I'd open Disk Utility and ERASE the internal drive. I'd NUKE IT BACK TO NOTHING. Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format.
The internal drive should now be "empty", in HFS+.
Next, I'd open CarbonCopyCloner.

CCC will probably ask if you wish to clone over the recovery partition as well.
GREAT! This is just what I'd do. CCC will add a recovery partition and put the necessary software onto it.

Thank you for the detailed instructions.
The only place where I have a question is when you say "nuke it back to nothing". This is what I thought I was doing several days ago. But....
Today, I pulled the HD out of the machine, I found an EFI partition AND a Recovery partition in addition to the Boot Volume. Apparently, Disk Utility is a little selective about what it will erase.

Then I installed a different HD that had been erased on a Windows PC and, Eureka!!! All of a sudden, I started seeing options for Internet Recovery that had never appeared before. I can only conclude that the Recovery partition was corrupted and Disk Utility had stubbornly refused to delete it and Install MacOS El Capitan failed to overwrite it.

 

[Wiley1]

I wish I had these instructions a month ago. I would have had a CCC copy of iMac1 that I could have applied to iMac2 instead of wallowing in Purgatory for 11 days. It wouldn't have worked, (see below), but it have saved me a ton of pain.

I was able to successfully create a bootable installation of El Capitan on a USB 3.0 hard drive. It booted nicely to Finder and allowed me to to install CCC. All this while the internal HD was still wiped (by Windows) and unformatted. This makes me think there is nothing wrong with this Mac, with the possible exceptions of the HD and SATA controller. Then I cloned the external drive to the internal drive which reported success.

Problem: Now, when trying to boot from the internal HD, it takes 10 to 15 minutes to get to the login prompt. After logging in, it takes another 20 minutes of spinning white cursor and spinning colored pinwheel to get to Finder.

What does all this mean? The Mac works far better with an external drive than with this internal drive. Either (1) the drive is bad in some undetectable way or (2) the SATA controller is sick or (3) the CCC operation was faulty. Those are the only three things that I can identify as being different between the two boot methods. I'm leaning toward number 2 based on my experience when attempting to install from USB stick.

What next? I have another HD that is the exact same model, WD5000AAKS Blue, that I can wipe and install. Or, should I wipe (rudimentary with Disk Utility) the boot volume where it sits and try "Install MacOS El Capitan" again directly from the USB stick? I think I will take the second option, but when it starts taking forever like before, that HD is coming out.
[doublepost=1529847412][/doublepost]A couple of side questions for the community:

> Is there any way to rename a thread?
> Is there a free disk utility that can be installed on a boot USB stick (other than Disk Utility)?

 

[Fishrrman]

Thoughts:
1. Open the Startup Disk preference pane and designate the NEW drive inside to be the boot drive.
Then, close Startup Disk, power down (all the way off), and reboot. Any better getting to the login screen?

2. The reason it may have consumed a lot of time between the login and the finder is, IF it was a brand-spanking-new OS install, Spotlight will "index the drive". And... because it's a platter-based drive (right?) and slower, the indexing takes time.
My solution to Spotlight is to DISABLE IT PERMANENTLY. I use other search tools.

If you're going to open it up again, put an SSD into it, NOT a platter-based hard drive.
That will make "all the difference in the world".

Having said that...
IF it runs better from an external drive than from an internal one...
... boot and run from the EXTERNAL drive.
Go with "what works best for you". Yes, I'm a simple-minded guy.

RE:
"Is there a free disk utility that can be installed on a boot USB stick (other than Disk Utility)?"

There are 3rd-party tools, such as DiskWarrior, Drive Genius, TechTool Pro, etc.
All are "pay for" software.
For most drive related software "repairs", DU is all you need.

 

[Wiley1]

Thoughts:
1. Open the Startup Disk preference pane and designate the NEW drive inside to be the boot drive.
2. My solution to Spotlight is to DISABLE IT PERMANENTLY. I use other search tools.
3. If it runs better from an external drive than from an internal one, boot and run from the EXTERNAL drive.

1. No Diff
2. If CCC makes an exact copy, shouldn't the destination already be indexed?
3. I may not have mentioned that this machine has to go back into the Business Center. It can't have anything hanging off of it, except for the mouse and keyboard, of course, and they are both wired for a good reason.

Aren't you the least bit curious why an internal SATA drive is being drastically outperformed by a crappy USB HD? I am. And, I will get to the bottom of it.

According to this page,
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-i3-3.06-21-inch-aluminum-mid-2010-specs.html
the SATA controller in an A1311 is 3Gb/s.

Does anybody know why Apple has connected wires to pins 5&6 on the Western Digital HDD? A jumper across those pins enables OPT1, which cuts the transfer rate in half to 1.5 Gb/s. Why would anybody want to do that? I need to try it with that stupid cable disconnected.

 

[Wiley1]

More fun ....
As I expected, the installation from USB stick to internal hard disk was a disaster. Although it was technically successful, it took over 10 hours to complete. Now the system boots to Finder, but it takes nearly an hour to get there.

Next step is to install a replacement internal HD that was wiped on a Windows computer.

I suppose I could install OS X from USB again. It won't take long to determine whether it is happening at rabbit speed, turtle speed, or snail speed.

Or, I could connect the external USB hard disk that contains a perfectly working installation of El Capitan and use CCC to clone the external drive to the internal drive. Yeah, I think that is what I'll do because I don't want to spend another whole day on this piece of dog doody.

Does anybody know of an HD diagnostic utility that I can run in El Capitan? Something that allows me to select a particular HD drive and measure actual disk transfer speeds? The one that comes with OS X is lame.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Or, I could connect the external USB hard disk that contains a perfectly working installation of El Capitan and use CCC to clone the external drive to the internal drive. Yeah, I think that is what I'll do because I don't want to spend another whole day on this piece of dog doody."

THIS is what you should try next.
IF you have an EXTERNAL drive that boots the Mac without problems, do this:
1. Boot from that external drive
2. Open Disk Utility and ERASE the internal drive. NUKE IT to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format.
3. TEST the newly-reformatted drive. Click the "repair disk" button and observe the results. Do you get "a good report"?
4. If you do, REPEAT THE TEST FIVE TIMES in succession. Do you get a good report every time?
5. If so, I would assume the drive itself is good. On to the next step.
6. Open CCC. Select the external drive as your source, and the internal (empty) drive as your target.
7. Let CCC do its thing. It may take a little time.
8. CCC may ask if you wish to clone the recovery partition as well. If it does, YES, you want to do this.
9. When done, power down.
10. Press the power on button and hold down the option key until startup manager appears. Do you see the newly-cloned internal drive? If so, select it and hit return.
11. Does this change things? Do you get a "good enough" boot up?

If it still won't boot properly in a reasonable length of time, it might be something in the SATA connection itself.

 

[Wiley1]

By the time I read your suggestion, I had already decided that the HD was probably the source of all my frustrations.

Here is what I did:

1. Booted into El Capitan from the USB HD drive
2. Downloaded and installed BlackMagic Disk Speed Test
3. Measured the USB external HD at 34/31 MB/s
4. Measured the internal HD at 1.8/0.8 MB/s
5. Replaced the HD with an exact duplicate model, erased by Windows
6. Erased, partitioned, and formatted the internal hard disk with Disk Utility
7. Measured the "new" internal HD at 130/135 MB/s
8. used CCC to copy the external drive to the internal drive. This operation completed in under 30 minutes, not 30 hours.

Well, there you go. The original HD had failed in a way I had never seen before. It ran perfectly except that it is 80x slower than it should be. Perhaps the internal cache is kaput.

The system is now booting from the internal HD and El Capitan is running beautifully.

The only questions left to answer are:

1. How was the lame Apple Disk Utility unable to detect the problems with this drive?
2. Why did the "geniuses" at the Genius Bar waste 9 hours of my time (and theirs) trying to install OS X on a system with a bad HD?

 

[Fishrrman]

I don't believe Disk Utility cares about "speed". All that it's looking for are things like directory-related problems, etc.

As to the Genius Bar, well, sometimes it's best to figure things out for yourself...

 

[Wiley1]

I don't believe Disk Utility cares about "speed". All that it's looking for are things like directory-related problems, etc.

You don't see that as a problem? It was certainly a huge problem for me. Just one more reason to hate Apple.

 

[Wiley1]

Thanks again to Fishrrman. With the knowledge I gained in this thread, I was able to diagnose and replace a bad hard disk in a different iMac. The entire procedure, including the reinstall and config, took under an hour, not 2 weeks.