HELP! HD locked on reinstall!

[Weaselboy]

Once you get to the recovery screen, open Terminal from the Utilities menu then run this command to set the date and time on your Mac.... then try the install.

ntpdate -u "time.apple.com"

 

[Bmack]

I have a similar problem, I bought a 2009 mac running ep Capitan.
I went to erase disk main new, managed to do it. When I go to reinstall in asks for my apple id which for some reason or another it wont let me log in. I've never had a mac before.
But it says there is a recovery hd when I go to reinstall the el capitan but that doesnt show I disk utility

 

[Weaselboy]

I have a similar problem, I bought a 2009 mac running ep Capitan.
I went to erase disk main new, managed to do it. When I go to reinstall in asks for my apple id which for some reason or another it wont let me log in. I've never had a mac before.
But it says there is a recovery hd when I go to reinstall the el capitan but that doesnt show I disk utility

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/28498712/

See if you can get into Internet recovery as described in this post.

 

[Bmack]

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/28498712/

See if you can get into Internet recovery as described in this post.

I cant seem to do this, it connects automatically to my wifi

 

[Weaselboy]

Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery - Apple Support

Some computers that came with OS X Snow Leopard and earlier installed can use the OS X Internet Recovery feature after applying a firmware update.

support.apple.com

It looks like your Mac is too old to support Internet recovery. So you are able to command-r boot to regular recovery?

 

[Bmack]

Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery - Apple Support

Some computers that came with OS X Snow Leopard and earlier installed can use the OS X Internet Recovery feature after applying a firmware update.

support.apple.com

It looks like your Mac is too old to support Internet recovery. So you are able to command-r boot to regular recovery?

Yes it will boot to normal recovery mode

 

[Bmack]

The recovery disk that's locked I can't seem to see in disk utilit could this be a problem?

 

[Weaselboy]

The recovery disk that's locked I can't seem to see in disk utilit could this be a problem?

No... that is normal. So you did a command-r boot to recovery then erase Macintosh HD, now it won't let you reinstall?

Do you have access to another Mac where you could download the OS and make a USB recovery key?

 

[Bmack]

No... that is normal. So you did a command-r boot to recovery then erase Macintosh HD, now it won't let you reinstall?

Do you have access to another Mac where you could download the OS and make a USB recovery key?

I dont have access to another no this is the first mac I've owned, I have another normal pc

 

[Bmack]

No... that is normal. So you did a command-r boot to recovery then erase Macintosh HD, now it won't let you reinstall?

Do you have access to another Mac where you could download the OS and make a USB recovery key?

This is what I see in disk utility

 

[Weaselboy]

See if you can remove that Untitled partition then format the Main disk new one to Mac OS Journaled Extended. The try to install.

I think what might be going in is older OS versions the download was attached to an AppleID account, and of course your don't have one.

 

[Bmack]

See if you can remove that Untitled partition then format the Main disk new one to Mac OS Journaled Extended. The try to install.

I think what might be going in is older OS versions the download was attached to an AppleID account, and of course your don't have one.

It's just saying operation failed now,
They dont make this easy do they!

 

[Weaselboy]

You won't be able to erase the whole disk like you are trying there. Select untitled and try to remove that. Then select Main disk new and format.

 

[Bmack]

See if you can remove that Untitled partition then format the Main disk new one to Mac OS Journaled Extended. The try to install.

I think what might be going in is older OS versions the download was attached to an AppleID account, and of course your don't have one.

When I go to delete the partition it says operation failed

 

[Weaselboy]

I think you are kind of stuck here unless you can get access to another Mac to download the OS to a USB key.

Another option that might work is you can still buy some of the older Mac OS versions on a DVD from places like Amazon.

 

[Bmack]

You won't be able to erase the whole disk like you are trying there. Select untitled and try to remove that. Then select Main disk new and format.

Soon as I go to delete the partition the main disk new and untilited get filled with other

 

[Iwangough]

Hi, im after advice for my new purchase ( Imac mid 2011 ) which was running macos high sierra Version 10.13.6

Having just purchased it off ebay, I followed a youtube video to reset it as there was a account currently running on the imac so I wanted to completely get rid of everything to factory new.
Having no real sense of what i was doing i followed the video and did the ‘cmd’ ‘R’ and accesed the utility section, which i then went on to disk utility and I pressumed I removed the macintosh. Photos added to show..
Ive tried to follow some instructions from other posts on this page but didnt work..

The problem is that I cant reinstall it as the two disks that come up are locked even though there is no password on ‘startup security utility’

Any help i would highly appreciate
Many thanks, Iwan

 

[Weaselboy]

Any help i would highly appreciate

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/28498712/

Try following my instructions in this post. Note you hold command-option-r to boot to Internet recovery instead of regular command-r recovery. Let mw know how that works out.

 

[Iwangough]

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/28498712/

Try following my instructions in this post. Note you hold command-option-r to boot to Internet recovery instead of regular command-r recovery. Let mw know how that works out.

Thanks for the reply.
currently trying to sort it out.

spinning globe has just gone, currently on a blank screen with a apple logo

 

[Weaselboy]

Give it some time to download and launch the recovery utility. It has to download the whole thing over the Internet, then launch. The fact you got the grey globe is a good sign.

 

[Iwangough]

Give it some time to download and launch the recovery utility. It has to download the whole thing over the Internet, then launch. The fact you got the grey globe is a good sign.

That’s great thanks.
Its still on a blank screen since almost 40minutes.. does it tend to take a while to load?

 

[Weaselboy]

Should not take that long unless you have really awful Internet speeds. The recovery utility is about 650MB.

So did command-option-r boot, selected your wifi, then saw the grey globe (how long?)... then what happened?

 

[Iwangough]

Should not take that long unless you have really awful Internet speeds. The recovery utility is about 650MB.

So did command-option-r boot, selected your wifi, then saw the grey globe (how long?)... then what happened?

Did as you said, took around 5mins for the bar underneath to fill and then has gone on to a blank screen with a apple logo which hasnt changed since around 45mins now. Should i turn my Imac off and start again.

 

[Weaselboy]

Should i turn my Imac off and start again.

Worth a try... but I'm wondering if you have some other underlying hardware issue. Did this thing ever boot up and work correctly?

 

[Iwangough]

Worth a try... but I'm wondering if you have some other underlying hardware issue. Did this thing ever boot up and work correctly?

I just purchased it.. had an account on it already, worked perfect went on it an all as he gave me his password.. But I decided to try and factory reset it.
Which i think its where ive made a mess