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I messed up

L

letsfixmymac

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 8, 2018
4
1
I was trying to sell my old macbook that I havent used in ages, so I decided to restore it to blank. I'm not sure how I messed up but now it only boots up to
RecoverHD-5a6f94d7642dca0036e2105f.jpg

when I try to reinstall the macos it either says "recovery server could not be contacted" or lets me passed the agreement and then when choosing the disk to install my HD shows to be locked and unselectable.
Any ideas how to fix this?
 
letsfixmymac said:
I was trying to sell my old macbook that I havent used in ages, so I decided to restore it to blank. I'm not sure how I messed up but now it only boots up to
RecoverHD-5a6f94d7642dca0036e2105f.jpg

when I try to reinstall the macos it either says "recovery server could not be contacted" or lets me passed the agreement and then when choosing the disk to install my HD shows to be locked and unselectable.
Any ideas how to fix this?
Click to expand...

Is there a lock icon in the lower left cornerof System Prefs? If so, click it and enter you admin password when asked.
 
MSastre said:
Is there a lock icon in the lower left cornerof System Prefs? If so, click it and enter you admin password when asked.
Click to expand...
i can't get to the system preferences. Every time I restart it, the macos utilities screen will load. Everything I've tried so far hasn't been able to get me to boot up normally.
 
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Do you still have the original startup DVD for your old MacBook? And is the optical drive still working? If yes to both, boot the MacBook with the startup disk. It appears your MacBook is booting to recovery which might mean your hard drive is zonked.
 
chscag said:
Do you still have the original startup DVD for your old MacBook? And is the optical drive still working? If yes to both, boot the MacBook with the startup disk. It appears your MacBook is booting to recovery which might mean your hard drive is zonked.
Click to expand...
I got it used so no dvd. The optical drive does still work though. Can I just replace the hard drive?
 
Yes, you can replace the hard drive but you will need either a startup disk or an install USB flash drive. You didn't mention which MacBook you have? (year and model) Apple still sells a Snow Leopard DVD (macOS 10.6.) from their web site for $19.99.
 
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