Trouble reinstalling original OSX on 2010 iMac

[aery]

Hey there, I'm hoping someone might have some tips for me.

I have a 2010 iMac that I will be passing on to my mom and I would like it to be just as when I first got it. Now I bought it from the Apple refurbished store in 2012 and I don't recall getting any OS disks or drives since I'm pretty sure it came with Lion.

So I wiped the hard drive though Disk Utility, all good, but when I went to reinstall of course it wants to reinstall Mavericks since that's the last OS I had on there but I want it to go back to Lion. I then press Command + Option + R to get to Internet Recovery, the globe comes up and it loads all the way but then after that it is stuck on the Apple logo for hours! I tried it again and same thing. When I try to start it up normally now there is a flashing folder with a question mark, which I've read means the start up disk can't be found? I also try just pressing Command + R at startup but it doesn't take me to Disk Utility anymore, only Internet Recovery, and the same thing happens - stuck at the Apple logo. I'm not sure what to do now.

EDIT: Apparently I actually bought it in 2011 and from what I have read there was a firmware update in early 2012 for some older Macs to be able to use Internet Recovery to reinstall the OS so I'm assuming that my Mac is unable to do that since I don't remember ever installing that update myself? Although it seems strange that it would come up anyway? Is there any way for me to get Disk Utility to load up even just to reinstall Mavericks so that I can download this update?

 

[Weaselboy]

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202313

You should have Internet recovery since your Mac is on this list. You would not see that spinning globe at all if you did not.

There are issues with Internet recovery over certain types of wifi encryption. See halfway down here. You might try just opening up your wife with no password at all temporarily then try again.

 

[aery]

Oh ok, so it would have just been included in a regular software update then. Yeah, makes sense - I was thinking that too, it shouldn't even come up if I don't have it. I looked at the chart in that link about the wifi and I think my connection should be fine but the thing is, it doesn't prompt me for any wifi information at all when doing the Internet Recovery. Mmm. Is there anything else I could try?

I'm really hoping I won't have to lug it to an Apple store, especially since I no longer have Applecare on it but it looks like I may have to.

Thanks so much for your help and the links.

 

[Weaselboy]

Oh ok, so it would have just been included in a regular software update then. Yeah, makes sense - I was thinking that too, it shouldn't even come up if I don't have it. I looked at the chart in that link about the wifi and I think my connection should be fine but the thing is, it doesn't prompt me for any wifi information at all when doing the Internet Recovery. Mmm. Is there anything else I could try?

I'm really hoping I won't have to lug it to an Apple store, especially since I no longer have Applecare on it but it looks like I may have to.

Thanks so much for your help and the links.

It remembers your wifi selection from the last time you used Internet recovery, so that would be why it does not ask now likely.

I have seen cases where the hard drive is bad, so that Internet recovery cannot even load on the drive to get started. Was it acting like maybe the drive was bad?

Can you try just opening up your wifi with no password to see if that helps?

 

[danwestbrook]

Try a PRAM reset first and see if that helps... https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204063. If not I don't suppose you or a friend has another Mac so you could download OS X and create a USB installer?

 

[aery]

It remembers your wifi selection from the last time you used Internet recovery, so that would be why it does not ask now likely.

I have seen cases where the hard drive is bad, so that Internet recovery cannot even load on the drive to get started. Was it acting like maybe the drive was bad?

Can you try just opening up your wifi with no password to see if that helps?

Sorry for the late reply, it was Thanksgiving weekend here.

I don't think the hard drive is bad and I wasn't able to open up anything at all from the screens I was getting. It's all good though, I ended up finding my OSX discs and called Apple. What finally worked was pressing C after the chime while the disc was inserted. Then I was able to reinstall Snow Leopard.

Apparently the Internet Recovery wouldn't have worked anyway, since it only works with Lion onward. Not sure what the point of the Internet Recovery update on the 2010 iMac is then but whatever. I'm just glad it's sorted out.

Thank you so much for your suggestions!

 

[aery]

Try a PRAM reset first and see if that helps... https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204063. If not I don't suppose you or a friend has another Mac so you could download OS X and create a USB installer?

Sorry for the late reply, it was Thanksgiving weekend here.

Thank you for your suggestions but I actually ended up finding my OSX discs and called Apple. What finally worked was pressing C after the chime while the disc was inserted. Then I was able to reinstall Snow Leopard. I appreciate your help.

 

[danwestbrook]

no worries glad it's all working