Well That Was A Stupid Thing To Do - Trashed Hard Drive

[djdl]

I was preparing my iMac for resale and wanted to erase the hard drive and restore it back to factory settings.

I google searched how to do it and found an article which said it had to be done by using the original install disc and the using Disk Utility.

I have lost one of my original install discs so used my Snow Leopard upgrade disc instead.

When I opened Disk Utility I went to the "Restore" tab and then for the "Source" field chose the Snow Leopard disc and the "Destination" I selected the Mac HD and checked "Erase Destination".

Big mistake.......

Now I can't get past the install OS X process.
Upon booting I am taken straight to this and get as far as "Select the disk where you want to install Mac S X" and there is nothing showing.

If I open Disk Utility I see the iMac Hard Drive listed with "Mac OS X Install DVD" directly beneath that where "Macintosh HD" used to be displayed.

What have I done? And is there a way around it? Or have I completely screwed my hard drive and need to buy a new one?

Thanks for any help
Don

 

[tjcad]

I was preparing my iMac for resale and wanted to erase the hard drive and restore it back to factory settings.

I google searched how to do it and found an article which said it had to be done by using the original install disc and the using Disk Utility.

I have lost one of my original install discs so used my Snow Leopard upgrade disc instead.

When I opened Disk Utility I went to the "Restore" tab and then for the "Source" field chose the Snow Leopard disc and the "Destination" I selected the Mac HD and checked "Erase Destination".

Big mistake.......

Now I can't get past the install OS X process.
Upon booting I am taken straight to this and get as far as "Select the disk where you want to install Mac S X" and there is nothing showing.

If I open Disk Utility I see the iMac Hard Drive listed with "Mac OS X Install DVD" directly beneath that where "Macintosh HD" used to be displayed.

What have I done? And is there a way around it? Or have I completely screwed my hard drive and need to buy a new one?

Thanks for any help
Don

Maybe you erased the partition, did you try to create a mac osx hd partition?

 

[Evo-L]

Sounds like you erased the HDD, and never created a new partition to install OSX to.

Just go into disk utility, and select "New Partition", click create. It will take a second, and finish.

Go back into the installer, and select the drive, and continue with installation.

 

[djdl]

Thanks for the tips, but I can't even do that.

When I'm in Disk Utility and I select "Partition" all the "Volume Scheme" and "Volume Information" etc are greyed out and unable to be selected.

The same is true for each of the tabs in Disk Utility - First Aid, Erase and Restore.

I think I'm royally screwed

 

[bookwormsy]

just go to the apple store. make an appointment at the genius bar and they will help you.

 

[SaSaSushi]

Try fsck per the directions on this page at Apple.

 

[Silentwave]

Your computer is booting off the hard drive, not the actual DVD. You created a copy of the install DVD on the hard drive and since it's booting off that it cannot make any changes to the disk. Hold down the option key as you turn it on and pick the actual DVD drive. Then when it boots you can open disk utility there and re-partition the original drive.

Then you have a problem though. Since snow leopard is an upgrade, you would need Leopard installed on the drive in order to install SL. So you'll need to get a leopard install disc first.

 

[borcanm]

Your computer is booting off the hard drive, not the actual DVD. You created a copy of the install DVD on the hard drive and since it's booting off that it cannot make any changes to the disk. Hold down the option key as you turn it on and pick the actual DVD drive. Then when it boots you can open disk utility there and re-partition the original drive.

Then you have a problem though. Since snow leopard is an upgrade, you would need Leopard installed on the drive in order to install SL. So you'll need to get a leopard install disc first.

He doesn't need leopard. He can use the Snow Leopard upgrade disk (the 29$ one) to do a full install.

 

[djdl]

Thanks again for the help.
I've made an appointment with the Genius Bar for Friday, but if I can get it fixed prior to that I'd be happy.

Silentwave I'll give your suggetion a go. Hopefully that will do it

 

[djdl]

Silentwave I love you and want to father your children!
Everything's back to normal.

Thanks again for your help.
Don