Fortmatting/setting up brand new SSD on 2011 iMac

[ruk110]

So after my hard drive stopped working on my late 2011 27inch iMac 3.1GHZ i5 iMac. I ripped it apart and replaced it with a 1Tb Samsung SSD. I don't have any other computer so I couldn't format it or set it up with an OS before putting it in.

I have the original set up discs that I got with the Mac and I also have my time machine external hard drive ready to go.

Is there anyway I can boot up my iMac so I can format it and start getting an OS loaded onto it?

I can't seem to get any access to disk utilities by holding down key combinations. All I can get is the choose a drive screen by holding down the option key, but that's a bit useless for me as I can't exactly load my time machine to 'nothing'.

Any help would be much appreciated guys and gals x

 

[maflynn]

Is there anyway I can boot up my iMac so I can format it and start getting an OS loaded onto it?

Yes, insert the original system disks, start up the computer and hold the C key.

I forget the details, since I've not done this in a long time, but you may be presented with an option to install OSX, or you may need to select the Disk Utility from the menu and then install OSX. There also should be an option to restore your TM backup, but I believe you need to partition and format the drive first.

 

[ruk110]

Yes, insert the original system disks, start up the computer and hold the C key.

I forget the details, since I've not done this in a long time, but you may be presented with an option to install OSX, or you may need to select the Disk Utility from the menu and then install OSX. There also should be an option to restore your TM backup, but I believe you need to partition and format the drive first.

Hey maflynn,

So I did just as you said. Held the C key down. The grey apple logo pops up and the spinning circle spins. I can hear the installation disk chugging away being read. But then after a while the apple logo disappears. No more spinning circle and disk is is not being read anymore. I'm all out of ideas :'(

 

[maflynn]

How much time did you give it? The boot up may take a few minutes.

 

[keysofanxiety]

So after my hard drive stopped working on my late 2011 27inch iMac 3.1GHZ i5 iMac. I ripped it apart and replaced it with a 1Tb Samsung SSD. I don't have any other computer so I couldn't format it or set it up with an OS before putting it in.

I have the original set up discs that I got with the Mac and I also have my time machine external hard drive ready to go.

Is there anyway I can boot up my iMac so I can format it and start getting an OS loaded onto it?

I can't seem to get any access to disk utilities by holding down key combinations. All I can get is the choose a drive screen by holding down the option key, but that's a bit useless for me as I can't exactly load my time machine to 'nothing'.

Any help would be much appreciated guys and gals x

Did you say you have an external TM backup? Normally if you plug it in and hold Alt on startup, you should see the TM backup drive. If you boot into that, it should take you to OS X Utilities, and then from there you can format the internal SSD using Disk Utility.

Once the internal SSD is formatted, you can either restore Time Machine backup or select the 'Reinstall OS X' option to install a fresh copy of the OS onto the SSD.

The alternative would be booting into Internet Recovery by pressing and holding CMD+ALT+R on startup, until you see a globe icon. It'll take some time to boot into this, and you should see a similar screen to what is mentioned above.

Please let me know what the news is.

 

[maflynn]

If you boot into that, it should take you to OS X Utilities, and then from there you can format the internal SSD using Disk Utility.

I never heard that before. I didn't think TM created a bootable backup of your system. In fact most of the directions for using TM's restore feature was to boot into your recovery partition.

 

[keysofanxiety]

I never heard that before. I didn't think TM created a bootable backup of your system. In fact most of the directions for using TM's restore feature was to boot into your recovery partition.

Yep, it definitely does! You can boot straight into it, and it takes you to OS X Utilities, identical to if you were booting into the standard CMD+R recovery partition. It makes it a lot easier when you have a new drive fitted, because you can just boot directly into your TM backup and either do a fresh install from there, or restore TM backup.

I don't really know why Apple don't advertise the feature, it's really really useful.

Just triple-checked on my Mac as well. Booted into a TM backup that I literally just created a few minutes ago to test this, and it's just as you'd expect. Hope this is helpful for future!

 

[maflynn]

Yep, it definitely does!

Cool feature but one that seems to be missing for me. I just tried it, and I only see OS X and Windows on the boot menu.

If I recall now, even with my MBP, I never saw the TM backup as an option.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Cool feature but one that seems to be missing for me. I just tried it, and I only see OS X and Windows on the boot menu.

If I recall now, even with my MBP, I never saw the TM backup as an option.

Hurm, that's really odd. So while having the TM backup plugged in from startup, it doesn't even display on the Alt menu? And I assume it shows fine within the OS?

What about if you go to Startup Disk in OS X? Is the TM backup visible there?

EDIT: Apple's documentation also seems to imply that backup drives are visible/bootable in the Startup manager. I'm stumped why your TM backup won't appear.

EDIT 2: If you'd be happy to allow 15 minutes or so to try and get to the bottom of this, you could try a quick new TM backup (just select the System folder to backup, exclude Applications/Users etc. so it does the backup quicker), and see if the new TM backup is bootable?

 

[ruk110]

Did you say you have an external TM backup? Normally if you plug it in and hold Alt on startup, you should see the TM backup drive. If you boot into that, it should take you to OS X Utilities, and then from there you can format the internal SSD using Disk Utility.

Once the internal SSD is formatted, you can either restore Time Machine backup or select the 'Reinstall OS X' option to install a fresh copy of the OS onto the SSD.

The alternative would be booting into Internet Recovery by pressing and holding CMD+ALT+R on startup, until you see a globe icon. It'll take some time to boot into this, and you should see a similar screen to what is mentioned above.

Please let me know what the news is.

I just tried to boot from TM. Nothing happened. Just stayed stuck at a grey screen.

I did the Internet recovery boot, I got the globe and a 9min countdown timer. The time had lapsed and then went onto a grey screen and stayed there doing nothing.

Any ideas?

 

[maflynn]

Hurm, that's really odd. So while having the TM backup plugged

As I think about it, I'm wondering if its because I'm running my TM off a Drobo Mini DAS. Its running off of my thunderbolt interface, perhaps there's something that from that DAS that is preventing it.

 

[ruk110]

How much time did you give it? The boot up may take a few minutes.

I did give it a generous amount of time...

 

[Hellhammer]

Try resetting NVRAM and SMC to see if those help.

 

[AppleNewton]

Are you doing this via Wi-Fi or Ethernet? ethernet would probably be quicker. for the restore process.

 

[ruk110]

Hey all. So after exhausting all of your ideas I ended up taking it to apple and they diagnosed the video card to have failed.

I'm not sure if I should replace it because it will cost me in excess of 800$AU. Now I'm starting to think I should sell it for spares and just get a new one