No start-up discs? Please Help.

[bboysmax]

Hi guys and gals, i'm new to the forums.
I couldn't find anything on here (or Google) to do with this exact problem.

Here's my problem:

I bought a second hand 2008 iMac a few days ago. The last owner didn't know how to restore or wipe the HD as he only had it a few months and hardly used it, hence the sale.

So i purchased it and went home wanting to wipe it and basically have it back to a new iMac.

I received no SL discs, or any discs for that matter. It was running 10.8 SL.
I went through different forums and Apple support website and noticed that due to 10.8 not having cmd+r option, i'd need the discs to wipe it. So instead of that, i decided to upgrade the system to Mountain Lion through the App Store, then use Disk Utility to restore back to factory settings.

The upgrade completed and was fully functional, so i did CMD+R and (like an idiot) 'Erased' the Macintosh HD and i think i also did the Disk.

So now every time i start the machine i get taken straight to Disk Utility and it tells me there are no start up discs available.

I'm not using Time Machine so that's no good.

I also tried 'Re-install fresh Mountain Lion' which seems to do nothing.

So basically i'm stuck now with a machine that i can't get to even the standard start-up screen.

Any ideas? Open to any suggestions!

Thanks, Kris.

 

[justperry]

Make a screenshot with a camera of Disk Utility and post here.

Something strange, if there is no recovery partition you should not see anything, just a blank screen.
What happens if you hold the Option key at startup, do you see recovery in the boot manager and if so
does it get you into recovery?
If Disk Utility shows up and you quit it what happens.?
How is the HD formatted?

 

[bboysmax]

Make a screenshot with a camera of Disk Utility and post here.

Something strange, if there is no recovery partition you should not see anything, just a blank screen.
What happens if you hold the Option key at startup, do you see recovery in the boot manager and if so
does it get you into recovery?
If Disk Utility shows up and you quit it what happens.?
How is the HD formatted?

Sorry, i mean on start-up it goes to OS X Utilities, not straight to Disk Utilities
That's what i thought, if there are no start-up discs or no OS X to boot then how am i getting straight to OS Utilities screen?
I've not tried the Option key on start-up, i know others don't work such as CMD+R, SHIFT, X
When i quit Disk Utilities then quit OS X Utilities then it asks me to choose a start-up disc, but at that screen it's blank and nothing is available to choose.

I basically went to Disk Utilities and used 'Erase' on the Macintosh HD. I think that's what's caused this.

 

[justperry]

Sorry, i mean on start-up it goes to OS X Utilities, not straight to Disk Utilities
That's what i thought, if there are no start-up discs or no OS X to boot then how am i getting straight to OS Utilities screen?
I've not tried the Option key on start-up, i know others don't work such as CMD+R, SHIFT, X
When i quit Disk Utilities then quit OS X Utilities then it asks me to choose a start-up disc, but at that screen it's blank and nothing is available to choose.

I basically went to Disk Utilities and used 'Erase' on the Macintosh HD. I think that's what's caused this.

I still fail to see what is going on here, your Mac does not have Internet Recovery build into it's firmware, if there is no OS on the disk nothing should happen at all, I am positive the Recovery HD must be there, if not NOTHING would happen.
That's the reason I ask for a screenshot, take your camera out and make a photo and post here.
What is OS X Utilities, again, make a picture.

 

[bboysmax]

I still fail to see what is going on here, your Mac does not have Internet Recovery build into it's firmware, if there is no OS on the disk nothing should happen at all, I am positive the Recovery HD must be there, if not NOTHING would happen.
That's the reason I ask for a screenshot, take your camera out and make a photo and post here.
What is OS X Utilities, again, make a picture.

When i'm home i'll try the Recovery HD.
This photo is from Google, but it's basically what comes up as soon as my iMac boots up (obviously mine says Mountain Lion, not Lion).
I've attached an image, not sure how to post directly into a reply if that doesn't work.

 

[justperry]

When i'm home i'll try the Recovery HD.
This photo is from Google, but it's basically what comes up as soon as my iMac boots up (obviously mine says Mountain Lion, not Lion).
I've attached an image, not sure how to post directly into a reply if that doesn't work.

It's right there under your nose.
ReInstall OS X, that's what you have to choose.
It will then download a copy of OS X Mountain Lion and Installs it.

Oh yeah, now I remember, it's the recovery HD, it's still there on a partition.

 

[bboysmax]

It's right there under your nose.
ReInstall OS X, that's what you have to choose.
It will then download a copy of OS X Mountain Lion and Installs it.

Oh yeah, now I remember, it's the recovery HD, it's still there on a partition.

Ah see i've tried that that's the problem. I click re-install a fresh copy of Mountain Lion and its starts up fine asking to agree to the Terms and Conditions, then turn my WiFi on and connect to internet, then sign into Apple ID, start the installation. It says it will take about 8 minutes to install, then it will restart. The 3 times i've tried it, the installation box disappears and then the OS X Utilities box pops back up. So i then restart the system to see if it worked and nothing.

 

[justperry]

Ah see i've tried that that's the problem. I click re-install a fresh copy of Mountain Lion and its starts up fine asking to agree to the Terms and Conditions, then turn my WiFi on and connect to internet, then sign into Apple ID, start the installation. It says it will take about 8 minutes to install, then it will restart. The 3 times i've tried it, the installation box disappears and then the OS X Utilities box pops back up. So i then restart the system to see if it worked and nothing.

What if you Hold Command-Option-R at startup, it will get you into internet Recovery which is different from Recovery HD.

 

[bboysmax]

What if you Hold Command-Option-R at startup, it will get you into internet Recovery which is different from Recovery HD.

I will have to try that tonight too

I don't finish work until 5:30 GMT but thought i'd post early in case i didn't get a reply!

 

[justperry]

I will have to try that tonight too

I don't finish work until 5:30 GMT but thought i'd post early in case i didn't get a reply!

By that time I am in bed.

 

[Weaselboy]

What if you Hold Command-Option-R at startup, it will get you into internet Recovery which is different from Recovery HD.

That won't work. He has a 2008 iMac and it does not support Internet Recovery.

I will have to try that tonight too

I don't finish work until 5:30 GMT but thought i'd post early in case i didn't get a reply!

Sounds like you at least have a good Mountain Lion Recovery HD partition going there, so that's something.

It sounds like the main install got janked. Let's erase are try again.

First thing, make sure your wifi network either is open with no password or has a WPA password. WEP password wifi won't work for this.

Do a command-r boot to get back to that same screen. Then start Disk Utility and select Macintosh HD, then click erase (make sure it is set as Mac OS Extended). After it is erased, click Macintosh HD in Disk Utility then click repair disk to see if that finds any disk errors.

Now quit Disk Utility, then click install OS. This is a 4.7GB DL and will take some time. You reporting it only takes eight minutes make me think you have a partial download that is corrupted, and erasing the disk like I described will make it start over.

----------

By that time I am in bed.

Sleep is for babies!

 

[bboysmax]

That won't work. He has a 2008 iMac and it does not support Internet Recovery.



Sounds like you at least have a good Mountain Lion Recovery HD partition going there, so that's something.

It sounds like the main install got janked. Let's erase are try again.

First thing, make sure your wifi network either is open with no password or has a WPA password. WEP password wifi won't work for this.

Do a command-r boot to get back to that same screen. Then start Disk Utility and select Macintosh HD, then click erase (make sure it is set as Mac OS Extended). After it is erased, click Macintosh HD in Disk Utility then click repair disk to see if that finds any disk errors.

Now quit Disk Utility, then click install OS. This is a 4.7GB DL and will take some time. You reporting it only takes eight minutes make me think you have a partial download that is corrupted, and erasing the disk like I described will make it start over.

----------



Sleep is for babies!

Ok so i'm home and just tried to erase the Macintosh HD, and i can't.
This attachment shows the error i get:

 

[bboysmax]

Okay so i restarted the computer, now that error doesn't pop up. The Macintosh HD has been erased.

It seems to be going good on the install!

Says it will take 48 minutes to download

 

[Weaselboy]

Ok so i'm home and just tried to erase the Macintosh HD, and i can't.
This attachment shows the error i get:

Did you do a command-r boot and are you in that recovery screen like in post #5 above? Your screenshot shows you are running off Macintosh HD and not Recovery HD.

 

[bboysmax]

Did you do a command-r boot and are you in that recovery screen like in post #5 above? You screenshot shows you are running off Macintosh HD and nor Recovery HD.

Command + r takes me to the same screen i get on start up.
It seems to be downloading the os pretty well so ill see how this goes

Thanks in advance to both of you for replying!

 

[Weaselboy]

Okay so i restarted the computer, now that error doesn't pop up. The Macintosh HD has been erased.

It seems to be going good on the install!

Says it will take 48 minutes to download

That sounds more like it!

Let us know how it goes.

 

[bboysmax]

That sounds more like it!

Let us know how it goes.

I now have a fully function iMac with Mountain Lion!

Thanks so much!

 

[Weaselboy]

I now have a fully function iMac with Mountain Lion!

Thanks so much!

Excellent! Glad it worked out.