I bought it at a yard sale today for $40. The problem is the guy lost his set up disc. I also bought an iMac G5 for the same price and it had the discs with it. Neither Mac was wiped out when I bought it. I wiped out the G5 no problem with the discs. The 2011 iMac will not take the disc though because it's older software. I tried download el captain to wipe it out on the 2011 Mac because it's compatible but it's saying I cannot download it even though it meets the requirements. How can I wipe this computer without having the snow leopard dvd. It's on OS X 10.6.8 right now.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
So, I just bought a 2011 iMac and need help restoring it to factory settings.
- Thread starter Jacoblee23
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I tried following the directions and it requires el captain being able to be downloaded from
App Store and it won't download.
I have tried finding alternative ways to download el captain other than the App Store and I'm not having any luck.
The 2011 iMac came pre-installed with Snow Leopard 10.6.6. You can ask Apple to send you the original DVD set for the machine which will be a set of two Gray - Silver DVDs. Once you've installed 10.6.6, you should then be able to download El Capitan. Every version of OS X after Snow Leopard is a download. No more disks and Pirate Bay is not the answer!
Guys, help! I searched on pirate bay for one and I started having constant freezing. Now my iMac won't even start in safe mode without the wheel spinning and it won't let me
Do anything. How do I fix this? I've entered the commands and it said it fixed the volume but it's still messed up. My iMac is unusable right now. I don't know for sure If searching for the software online did this but I bet it did.
Do anything. How do I fix this? I've entered the commands and it said it fixed the volume but it's still messed up. My iMac is unusable right now. I don't know for sure If searching for the software online did this but I bet it did.
Searching for something on the pirate bay absolutely did not cause the freezing.
If you want here's a link for 10.9.5 installer. Just restore it to a flash drive and you can install it to the iMac then upgrade El Capitan.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B57aKvKRO9GQbTFWR3hxazhHeFk/view?usp=sharing
If you want here's a link for 10.9.5 installer. Just restore it to a flash drive and you can install it to the iMac then upgrade El Capitan.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B57aKvKRO9GQbTFWR3hxazhHeFk/view?usp=sharing
I'm downloading it right now. Thank you. There is a problem with the volume on my hard drive or something and every time it says it's fixed in single user mode when I boot it up it messes up all over again. I hope I can even load this you gave me up on my flash drive before it freezes. I don't know what to do to fix this.
I downloaded your file Eric. I put it on an external hard drive and tried to run it and once it verified the file and said it can't install it because that's an improper way of downloading it on this computer and told me to download Mavericks from the App Store. I know it was only $40 but I'm regretting buying this at this point. I have an unusable computer on my hands and no idea how to fix it.
I just downloaded it to my 500gb eternal from my 2015 MacBook Pro and tried to run it on the iMac I'm having trouble with. Did I do something wrong ? I tried using first aid on the iMac hard drive and it won't finish without freezing up.
I'm sorry. I think I've confused you. Okay so last night I ran first aid on the iMac hard drive and it would freeze up every time I hit repair. This morning I downloaded Mavericks to an external hard drive. I plugged the external in my Mac and tried to run it and it said that it could only be downloaded from the App Store and this way wasn't an option.
Ok you'll need to restore the Mavericks image to your external hard drive and boot from it. Plug your external hard drive in your macbook and open disk utilities. Create a 10GB partition on it and call it whatever you want. Once the partition is created use disk utility to restore the Mavericks image to the 10GB partition. Once it's restored the image to that partition plug the external hard drive in to your iMac. Hit the option key at boot up and choose the partition with the Mavericks installer. Once the Mavericks installer boots up try formatting the drive with disk utility and if it does install Mavericks. If the internal iMac drive can't be formatted and you get an error like "can't mount" and the existing partition on the iMac hard drive is greyed out it may be on its way out or you might need someone like disk warrior to make it mountable.
Can you also take a picture of what disk utility looks like when you run it on your iMac?
Can you also take a picture of what disk utility looks like when you run it on your iMac?
I think I messed up on restoring the image part. It said failed to restore image.
[doublepost=1466265777][/doublepost]
Not sure if I did it right. It booted up the computer instead of trying to install Mavericks when I clicked on it in options when I started up. It gave me maybe three minutes before it froze up again. Tried to upload a pic for you but Macrumors said the file was too large
Keep in mind that this is a $40 garage sale iMac ... it may have been there for a reason!
This iMac may have a hardware problem which is contributing to your OS load issues. It may be a failing hard disk, defective RAM, or something more serious.
I would probably try to get it running from a known good external disk first and throughly check out the hardware to be sure it runs properly ... then try to install to the internal drive.
This iMac may have a hardware problem which is contributing to your OS load issues. It may be a failing hard disk, defective RAM, or something more serious.
I would probably try to get it running from a known good external disk first and throughly check out the hardware to be sure it runs properly ... then try to install to the internal drive.
Do you have access to another working Mac computer? You might simply make a bootable clone of that one to your external disk ... make sure it boots on that system ... then try to boot from it on the subject iMac.
You said the purchased iMac wasn't wiped ... so did it boot up at all with the existing OS as purchased?
Hey,
if you have problems making a bootable drive with Disk Utility you could try doing it with an older version of DiskMaker (X), what is able to run on Snow Leopard.
Sadly there is no version for Snow Leopard that officially supports creating an installer for Mavericks or newer.
But you could try it with selecting Mountain Lion or Lion. Or find an installer for one of those. Apple also still sells both of them for $19.99. But it could take 1-2 business days or longer to get the redemption code.
http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion
http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lion
There is DiskMaker 2.02 to install Lion and Mountain Lion and Lion DiskMaker 1.7 only to install Lion. I think both should run on Snow Leopard. You could try if selecting Mountain Lion works with the Mavericks installer too. Or try to find an installer for Mountain Lion or Lion.
Here you can download the older version of DiskMaker:
http://diskmakerx.com/whats-this/
I think I was able to create an El Capitan installer with selecting Yosemite in some older version of DiskMaker X last year when El Capitan was still in beta. So maybe you have luck with DiskMaker 2.02, selection Mountain Lion and choosing the Mavericks installer too.
Edit: I just saw you have a newer MacBook Pro. Then you could also try it there with a newer version.
if you have problems making a bootable drive with Disk Utility you could try doing it with an older version of DiskMaker (X), what is able to run on Snow Leopard.
Sadly there is no version for Snow Leopard that officially supports creating an installer for Mavericks or newer.
But you could try it with selecting Mountain Lion or Lion. Or find an installer for one of those. Apple also still sells both of them for $19.99. But it could take 1-2 business days or longer to get the redemption code.
http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion
http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lion
There is DiskMaker 2.02 to install Lion and Mountain Lion and Lion DiskMaker 1.7 only to install Lion. I think both should run on Snow Leopard. You could try if selecting Mountain Lion works with the Mavericks installer too. Or try to find an installer for Mountain Lion or Lion.
Here you can download the older version of DiskMaker:
http://diskmakerx.com/whats-this/
I think I was able to create an El Capitan installer with selecting Yosemite in some older version of DiskMaker X last year when El Capitan was still in beta. So maybe you have luck with DiskMaker 2.02, selection Mountain Lion and choosing the Mavericks installer too.
Edit: I just saw you have a newer MacBook Pro. Then you could also try it there with a newer version.