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Messed up install, now iMac is dead

S

smashingtuck

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 7, 2015
6
2
I just bought a 2014 iMac from Ebay. It hadn't been properly cleared so I tried reinstalling Mojave from fresh. I erased the hard disc and the options came on to reinstall Mojave. I decided to do it the following morning and stupidly switched the Mac off.

Now when I switch it on all I get is a folder with an exclamation mark.

I tried command R but it refuse to connect to any internet service. I tried connecting to my broadband and mobile internet. The first time a globe spun for 15 minutes and then I got apple.com/support -2002F. So I tried my mobile data and got apple.com/support -1005F.

Now it refuses to even TRY and instantly throws out those error codes whenever I try to connect to either of those two networks.

When I looked up to the error codes the suggested fix was:

"Search and launch “Disk Utility”

How can I possibly search and launch utility disk if I can't load anything onto the system?

Command-Option/Alt-R and pressing the Power button just brings up the flashing folder with the question mark.

I tried the bootable installer route with Mojave on a thumbdrive. I got up to the install Mojave screen, connected to my internet but the Apple logo just hangs on the screen for good.

I admit I made a mistake, but is it really this easy to permanantly trash an iMac???
 
Sometimes you will get those connection errors if your wifi security is of a type not supported by Internet recovery. Try opening your wifi (no password or security) and go a command-option-r boot to Internet recovery. If that works, use Disk Utility to erase the drive then reinstall the OS.
 
Connect the iMac directly to your internet modem/router using an ETHERNET cable (even if you have to move things around). This bypasses wifi.

Then... boot to:
Command-OPTION-R (internet recovery)

Does this work?
 
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Okay, I managed to connect to the Internet. Waited an hour for Internet recovery. Then it asked to install Yosemite even though Mojave was the last OS on the system. When I clicked install it asked to select the drive for the install. No drive showed up, it's just completely blank.

When I wiped the drive initially it only gave me the option to erase in the new file format. Is the drive not showing because Yosemite won't work on that new file format?
 
Last edited:
smashingtuck said:
When I wiped the drive initially it only gave me the option to erase in the new file format. Is the drive not showing because Yosemite won't work on that new file format?
Click to expand...
I think you are correct here -- that you had formatted the drive as apfs for Mojave, but Yosemite doesn't "know about" apfs.

So what Weaselboy is suggesting is after you get into the Internet Recovery screen, don't start the installation yet. Instead go to the Menu bar and pick Utilities-->Disk Utility (If I remember correctly). Then you can use DU to format ("erase") the internal drive to journaled hfs+ (what Yosemite is expecting to install on).

Regarding what OS version Internet Recovery will install, at least on some Macs, it depends upon which key combination you use to get into internet recovery: Cmd-R or Option-R or Shift-Option-R, according to this https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904, if you want Mojave, you should use Cmd-R (BUT see on that page the section titled "macOS Recovery exceptions").

It must be really frustrating to wait an hour for Internet Recovery to work, but hopefully it will, eventually... good luck!
 
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Thank you all for bringing me back from the brink of despair.

I erased the drive in disk utility back to old file format. Now, thus far it seems okay.

As I write this Yosemite is loading albeit saying I have 7 hours to wait!

I want to upgrade to Sierra to work alongside my existing systems but I cannot seem to find an OS Installer for Sierra that I create a USB Installer from that doesn't say either one of two things: this file is corrupted or "not a valid volume mount point". I've looked up all possible answers to this here and it appears the volume mount point is due to certain files being missing from the Sierra Install package.

Is there anywhere at all I can either purchase or download a version of Sierra that I can use to upgrade from Yosemite?
 
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