iMac Stuck! Is H.Sierra really that bad?

[Peter May]

Hello internet people,

So, the problem is that my iMac boots on this screen only:

I can't seem to boot the OS or Reinstall.

Just yesterday I updated my iMac (late 2009) from Snow Leopard to High Sierra.
The process was flawless as it should be.

When I got High Sierra installed and updated I decided to go for a clean install, and so I backed up my files and held down R+Cmd while restarting. I was not familiar with the process. I did something in Disc Utility, and then I tried to Reinstall High Sierra through the Main Menu but I've been getting the "This disc is locked" message.

My only start up option is this which leads me back to the main menu of MacOS Utilities.

This is what I see when I open the Disc Utility.. Erasing, Restoring and Unmounting are grayed out in both devices:

Is this me or is High Sierra that problematic?

 

[Mac Hammer Fan]

Installing High Sierra requires 10.8 or higher. You can't go immediately from 10.6 (Snow) to 10.13 (HS).

 

[Peter May]

Installing High Sierra requires 10.8 or higher. You can't go immediately from 10.6 (Snow) to 10.13 (HS).

My mistake then. Perhaps I was on 10.8 because the initial installation was successful.

The problem persists. :/

 

[h9826790]

In Disk Utility, if you choose WDC.... but not the OSX Base System, will it let you remove all partitions and start from scratch again?

You are now choose the partition, but not the hard drive.

 

[Peter May]

In Disk Utility, if you choose WDC.... but not the OSX Base System, will it let you remove all partitions and start from scratch again?

You are now choose the partition, but not the hard drive.

No removing or creating partitions was not working. I figured I should install from my MacOS CD, so I am back to 10.6.

I have other problems now so I will open another thread on the relevant subforum.

Thank you all for your responses!

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd suggest either El Capitan or Low Sierra on an older iMac (not High Sierra).
But...
If you want to try High Sierra again, I'd suggest the following.
- Have the HS installer on your internal drive
- Get a USB flash drive 16gb (or larger)
- Download an older version of "DiskMaker X":
http://diskmakerx.com/whats-this/

... then see if you can create a BOOTABLE USB flash drive with the installer on it.
This might work, not sure if the earliest version of DiskMaker will work with 10.6.8.

As mentioned above, you MIGHT have to "upgrade incrementally" -- that is get to, say, Mountain Lion (10.8), and then "make the jump" from there to 10.11, 10.12, or 10.13.

The "key" is creating a bootable flash drive that will boot completely independently on its own, not requiring a recovery partition, etc.

ALSO:
If you don't have a backup, I suggest you download either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper and use either to create a BOOTABLE cloned backup of your current install.
If things don't go as planned, having a cloned backup is the easiest way to get things "back to where they once belonged".
Either CCC or SD is free to download and use for 30 days.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Yes, if you aren't booting from a DVD or USB installer, you won't be able to wipe the drive, since recovery mode depends on that drive's data to function. Is disk encryption enabled?

If you have access to the Install High Sierra app, there's some quick copy and paste work in Terminal to make a bootable USB.

 

[h9826790]

No removing or creating partitions was not working. I figured I should install from my MacOS CD, so I am back to 10.6.

I have other problems now so I will open another thread on the relevant subforum.

Thank you all for your responses!

If you have that disc on hand. It should able to completely wipe the HDD and start everything again.

 

[Mac Hammer Fan]

Personally I have bad experiences with Diskmaker or Install Disk Creator since 10.11. It simply doesn't work on my Mac Pro's. The terminal command to make a bootable USB installer seems to be the only way.

 

[Fishrrman]

Perhaps "the world of the Mac Pro" is different, but I've had nothing but success with the apps that create bootable flashdrives.
Personal successes with:
1. Boot Buddy
2. Install Disk Creator.

I haven't tried DiskMaker X, but it's actually been around the longest.

 

[h9826790]

Perhaps "the world of the Mac Pro" is different, but I've had nothing but success with the apps that create bootable flashdrives.
Personal successes with:
1. Boot Buddy
2. Install Disk Creator.

I haven't tried DiskMaker X, but it's actually been around the longest.

The Mac Pro seems do react a bit different on this matter. I also never ever able to create any bootable USB by any software apart from terminal.

But in general, I will simply burn a disc. 100% work.

 

[JerryDon]

Hello internet people,

So, the problem is that my iMac boots on this screen only:

I can't seem to boot the OS or Reinstall.

Just yesterday I updated my iMac (late 2009) from Snow Leopard to High Sierra.
The process was flawless as it should be.

When I got High Sierra installed and updated I decided to go for a clean install, and so I backed up my files and held down R+Cmd while restarting. I was not familiar with the process. I did something in Disc Utility, and then I tried to Reinstall High Sierra through the Main Menu but I've been getting the "This disc is locked" message.

My only start up option is this which leads me back to the main menu of MacOS Utilities.

This is what I see when I open the Disc Utility.. Erasing, Restoring and Unmounting are grayed out in both devices:

Is this me or is High Sierra that problematic?

[doublepost=1511743337][/doublepost]High Sierra went bonkers starting with the next to last Beta version prior to release. It bricked my system (had been fine throughout the beta releases for months prior. The released 10.13 has yet to be successfully installed on my iMac (late 2012). I first tried my internal Fusion Drive (gave up on that, when it tanked similar to the failed beta release that I mentioned above - had to rebuild again). Next, I built (2) external HD's with 10.12 (given the advertised issues from Apple, concerning Fusion Drives) and just tried one of them as opposed to the Internal Fusion Drive (It failed.), coming up with to the same screen you displayed above (Utility Screen). I reloaded the 10.13 update from scratch and experienced the same failure.

 

[ashleykaryl]

The Mac Pro seems do react a bit different on this matter. I also never ever able to create any bootable USB by any software apart from terminal.

But in general, I will simply burn a disc. 100% work.

I find the same thing with my Mac Pro.

 

[Peter May]

I actually installed 10.6 from the Apple DVD and updated to El Capitan. Works like a charm now.

I have to say that for a late 2009 iMac(21.5) with 4gb of ram, the OS runs relatively smoothly. Just got an additional 8gb of ram and an SSD, so I expect my old beast to run almost like a new system.

I'll go nowhere near Sierra or High Sierra for the time being! Also heard about the security shenanigans going on with HS so, Apple, thanks but no thanks.

 

[Fishrrman]

For a 2009-vintage iMac, I'd reckon that El Cap is "as far as one needs to go"...

 

[JerryDon]

[doublepost=1511743337][/doublepost]High Sierra went bonkers starting with the next to last Beta version prior to release. It bricked my system (had been fine throughout the beta releases for months prior. The released 10.13 has yet to be successfully installed on my iMac (late 2012). I first tried my internal Fusion Drive (gave up on that, when it tanked similar to the failed beta release that I mentioned above - had to rebuild again). Next, I built (2) external HD's with 10.12 (given the advertised issues from Apple, concerning Fusion Drives) and just tried one of them as opposed to the Internal Fusion Drive (It failed.), coming up with to the same screen you displayed above (Utility Screen). I reloaded the 10.13 update from scratch and experienced the same failure.

After weeks of trying to resolve this focusing on Hard Drive and USB questions, and spending 3 hours with AppleCare (multiple levels) a couple of days ago, I looked inward to the iMac itself. I don't believe it but turned out to be an iMac memory error that showed itself using restart "D" (I had never used before and had no reason to believe that I should - everything has been running for years with no indication of a problem). I removed 2 of the modules & and the error stopped. Downloaded a fresh update (thinking that all of the many previous Update downloads may have been flawed by the memory issue) and installed on one of my external Test HD's and High Sierra downloaded, booted & worked - took a couple celebratory breaths - and updated the internal Fusion and it's now working. Who would have thought? High Sierra update must have stressed memory in a way that no other update or App has in the past. . .

 

[kohlson]

High Sierra update must have stressed memory in a way that no other update or App has in the past. .

Years ago I used to buy RAM upgrades from a local retailer. The Macs we had here at the house were less than fully reliable, and I just wrote this off to kids games, and Apple rushing software out the door. But similar to above, when I was upgrading to a new OS and it kept crashing, someone told me to put back in just the original RAM, and low and behold it worked and things got much more reliable.

If you have RAM that is defective at a certain position within the DIMM, and the OS now wants to install at this point (OSs get bigger over time), stands to reason that this would be trouble.