iMac won't Boot Mac Partition nor DVD

[nollimac]

I have been fighting with this trying to help a friend. The friend bought an iMac A1225 and wasn't aware that it had Windows 10 via BootCamp and reformatted the HD Apple's extended journal with three partitions. He then installed El Capitan and Yosemite via firewire from my laptop, then left the third to install Snow Leopard via the DVD. Well, we could not understand why Snow Leopard DVD would not boot...progress bar stopped halfway. So we attempted to boot El Capitan as well as Yosemite...they both did exactly the same thing where the boot progress bar stopped halfway.

So, we tried restoration of the firmware; however, the iMac would not beep when holding the power button. Then, we tried booting rEFIT and discovered there was a protective MBR partition in the first position who's operating system had been removed when we reformatted the HD to the extended journal.

Since we can't get terminal on the machine to use the GPT Fdisk (downloaded Fdisk but it's bootable), Would it be easier to just reinstall a Windows OS on that protective MBR partition? I just downloaded Windows 7 Ultimate iso to put on USB as the DVD would not mount. What a nightmare Bootcamp created! BTW, we had tested the iMac with AHT and no problem found. Also, the recovery partition did the same thing...boot to halfway as well.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

1. Of course you will have problems as one has to use BootCamp Assistant to remove the partition and recover the free space. That was the nightmare doing it wrong and not knowing about BootCamp alas.

2. What colour is the Snow Leopard DVD, black or silver grey? Often when the operating system has been upgraded, folk find it impossible to go backwards to Snow Leopard.

3. He is asking for problems having three operating systems on the machine.

4. Boot and hold down Option to see what is precisely on the machine and bootable. Suggest erase the hard drive by using firewire, format and check the entire drive is available and no partitions remained, and simply install El Capitan and update to the latest version over the 'net. Yosemite is a pretty crappy operating system, just give it a miss.

 

[nollimac]

1. Of course you will have problems as one has to use BootCamp Assistant to remove the partition and recover the free space. That was the nightmare doing it wrong and not knowing about BootCamp alas.

2. What colour is the Snow Leopard DVD, black or silver grey? Often when the operating system has been upgraded, folk find it impossible to go backwards to Snow Leopard.

3. He is asking for problems having three operating systems on the machine.

4. Boot and hold down Option to see what is precisely on the machine and bootable. Suggest erase the hard drive by using firewire, format and check the entire drive is available and no partitions remained, and simply install El Capitan and update to the latest version over the 'net. Yosemite is a pretty crappy operating system, just give it a miss.

Yes, I agree doing it wrong is a part of the nightmare experience...the other part is in a dual boot, it's reasonable to think that the Mac partition would have been the dominant one...not Windows. Also, we weren't aware of the Windows "Bootcamp" partition...remember!

2 - Apple sent me the "white" disks. 3 - Not really and no problem...on my production laptop I have three, El Capitan, a virgin El Capitan and Yosemite for 4yrs now no problem. 4 - Well, I wouldn't mind having Windows since the partition is there. It's after the rEFIt discovery that I did hold down "Option" key and saw that it was bootable...it just didn't have an OS. So, I popped in the Windows 7 DVD and ended up downloading the USB.iso. I think, after installing Windows 7, I may need to bless the other partitions.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

If you cannot boot from the Snow Leopard DVD the optical drive may be shot.

 

[nollimac]

If you cannot boot from the Snow Leopard DVD the optical drive may be shot.

No, I don't think so as rEFIT is on CD...it wouldn't read the CD and not DVD if its shot...dunno. What I think is happening is the first partition that is a Windows/Bootcamp etched a user in the NVRAMRC so it won't boot any of the new partitions I created or the DVD with Snow Leopard until that protective partition has an OS with a user.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

DVD are more intensive than simple CDs. Have seen optical drives handle CDs and not DVDs.

 

[Fishrrman]

IF nothing else works, why not just re-initialize the ENTIRE internal drive into a single Mac partition and start over?

 

[nollimac]

DVD are more intensive than simple CDs. Have seen optical drives handle CDs and not DVDs.

I have an external DVD play I could try.
[doublepost=1493661074][/doublepost]

IF nothing else works, why not just re-initialize the ENTIRE internal drive into a single Mac partition and start over?

I can do that...wondering whether the protection will still attach to the user-NVRAMRC in the firmware...that's the real problem.

 

[DeltaMac]

Reset both SMC and NVRAM. That will take care of that little issue.
Here's how I would do that:
Shut your iMac off. Unplug all cords (everything) from the back. Wait at least 5 seconds.
Plug in power. Plug in keyboard and mouse (nothing else)
Press and release the power button, while holding Option-Command-P-R.
You should hear a boot chime.
Continue holding the same 4 keys until you hear the boot chime two more times.
You can release the keys.
Boot to any convenient OS X installer. Erase the internal hard drive with Disk Utility. Do not choose any partition, but choose the line with the manufacturer's info, and click Erase. That should remove any pesky partitiions (and revert to a single partition.)
I would then shut the iMac off, from the menus.
Reboot to your fav installer, and reinstall OS X.
If you wish to install Windows through Boot Camp, do it now before you try to do anything else with partitions (less possible confusion then )

 

[nollimac]

Well, just as I expected...a complete re-initialization and complete wipe of hard drive doesn't remove the protective partition.


[doublepost=1493668136][/doublepost]

Reset both SMC and NVRAM. That will take care of that little issue.
Here's how I would do that:
Shut your iMac off. Unplug all cords (everything) from the back. Wait at least 5 seconds.
Plug in power. Plug in keyboard and mouse (nothing else)
Press and release the power button, while holding Option-Command-P-R.
You should hear a boot chime.
Continue holding the same 4 keys until you hear the boot chime two more times.
You can release the keys.
Boot to any convenient OS X installer. Erase the internal hard drive with Disk Utility. Do not choose any partition, but choose the line with the manufacturer's info, and click Erase. That should remove any pesky partitiions (and revert to a single partition.)
I would then shut the iMac off, from the menus.
Reboot to your fav installer, and reinstall OS X.
If you wish to install Windows through Boot Camp, do it now before you try to do anything else with partitions (less possible confusion then )

That does work...the protective partition needs to be removed first because NOTHING else will boot until that's resolve in the firmware (NVRAM)...MBR and GUID doesn't mix well!

 

[MichaelDT]

Well, just as I expected...a complete re-initialization and complete wipe of hard drive doesn't remove the protective partition.

...
That does work...the protective partition needs to be removed first because NOTHING else will boot until that's resolve in the firmware (NVRAM)...MBR and GUID doesn't mix well!

Boot off a linux live disto such as ubuntu gnome on a thumb drive, make sure you make it correctly with unetbootin. Use gparted or the command line to wipe the mbr partition table protection and rewrite as only gpt. You could also try just marking the main EFI partition as active in MBR and see what happens. Basically linux will let you do whatever you want. The unholy union of MBR and GPT is always a nightmare.

 

[nollimac]

Boot off a linux live disto such as ubuntu gnome on a thumb drive, make sure you make it correctly with unetbootin. Use gparted or the command line to wipe the mbr partition table protection and rewrite as only gpt. You could also try just marking the main EFI partition as active in MBR and see what happens. Basically linux will let you do whatever you want. The unholy union of MBR and GPT is always a nightmare.

Well, I was able to boot Gparted live CD and removed the MBR partition...only to discover the EFI protective...that says it's the iCloud's find my mac. If the Apple store can remove or reset it for almost freely, I'll take it there. I really like to learn how to do it too.

 

[MichaelDT]

Well if it's an older model I think pre-2012-13 boot from recovery partition repair the disk or wipe it then resetting the nvram again usually clears the lock. If that doesn't clear it try the apple store, hopefully your friend got it from a reputable source. Apple won't help unless it is just a software glitch, and not a lost item.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

The Apple Store will not touch an 'obsolete' model alas. Any chance the machine has FileVault enabled which would bring huge problems?

 

[nollimac]

Well if it's an older model I think pre-2012-13 boot from recovery partition repair the disk or wipe it then resetting the nvram again usually clears the lock. If that doesn't clear it try the apple store, hopefully your friend got it from a reputable source. Apple won't help unless it is just a software glitch, and not a lost item.

That's what I hope as well...he's currently in the military, and I may see him in a month.

The Apple Store will not touch an 'obsolete' model alas. Any chance the machine has FileVault enabled which would bring huge problems?

I surely hope not...I have had a bad experience with FileVault 9yrs ago when I bought my first 17" MacBook Pro and said never again...wasn't a pleasant experience being locked out of my computer. Also, I never receive a request for password other than the regular user log in password. The weird part is after wiping the hard drive, I could log in twice, assigning my Apple ID to it. Also, if it were FileVault, there would be a large encrypted image that can't delete. There is one more thing...I might be able to change the pass key to a new one. I have been buying Apple products for over twenty-three years...this is my first receiving one as a gift.

 

[nollimac]

Well, the "one more" thing won't work...have to take it to the Apple store.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

I hope you actually mean a reseller as the Apple Store won't touch anything older than 2012 iMacs.

 

[DeltaMac]

That's mostly correct. Any A1225 (24-inch iMac) is fully obsolete, so you don't get to expect anything in terms of support directly from Apple.
But nambuccaheadsa is jumping ahead, just a bit. (Maybe the official support is different in Australia ) The year 2012 is slightly inaccurate, as the 2011 model iMacs are still fully supported. It won't be for much longer, though.

 

[nollimac]

That's mostly correct. Any A1225 (24-inch iMac) is fully obsolete, so you don't get to expect anything in terms of support directly from Apple.

But nambuccaheadsa is jumping ahead, just a bit. (Maybe the official support is different in Australia ) The year 2012 is slightly inaccurate, as the 2011 model iMacs are still fully supported. It won't be for much longer, though.

Well, Apple support did give me a case number, sent me the Snow Leopard DVD set freely, then informed me to take the iMac 2008 24" 3.06Hzs to the Apple Store...so there is still a level of support. I'll have to pay the store for any work they do though. Only the AHT is free. So, if they can clear the "EFI protective" for say $50...that would worth it...more would sent it to the trash. I have seen videos with a USB device some use to clear the lock selling for $59...while others desoldered a chip from the mother board.

I must say that I learn a lot these pass few days.

 

[DeltaMac]

I would expect that if you clear all the partition information from the hard drive, that SHOULD fix your issue.
Or, you could just replace the hard drive on an 8 or 9 year-old Mac.
The main exception would be if there is actually a firmware password on the logic board.
A 2008 iMac can use the old firmware reset, which involves removing or adding a RAM stick (changing the RAM configuration is the trick), then a PRAM reset will disable a firmware password. This trick WON'T work on Macs newer than about mid 2010 and later models. You HAVE to take it to an Apple service shop then.

 

[nollimac]

I would expect that if you clear all the partition information from the hard drive, that SHOULD fix your issue.
Or, you could just replace the hard drive on an 8 or 9 year-old Mac.
The main exception would be if there is actually a firmware password on the logic board.
A 2008 iMac can use the old firmware reset, which involves removing or adding a RAM stick (changing the RAM configuration is the trick), then a PRAM reset will disable a firmware password. This trick WON'T work on Macs newer than about mid 2010 and later models. You HAVE to take it to an Apple service shop then.

Yes, I tried those steps to no avail...several times. I called the store, and the staff informed that it's free (to remove an EFI Protective)...good news...however, proof of purchase required...expected.