iMac 24" 7.1 c2007 Unable to reload OS

[daveintn]

I'm trying to reload an iMac 24" 7.1 c2007 for a friend and I can't get it to recognize a USB boot device, let alone boot from it.

So far I've determined the DVD is dead.

It had an OS on it but whoever they picked it up from didn't have the OS password and there was a password on the firmware.

I was able to clear the firmware password and wipe the drive. The only thing remaining is the recovery utilities on boot up.

I tried to do a reinstall via the Internet several times. However, each time it counts down to less than 30 seconds, then jumps to 400 million+ hours, then quits and returns to the recovery menu.

I've tried to create a USB boot thumb drive using TransMac on my PC, the USB has a GPT volume, but it doesn't recognize it as bootable. I can see the volume in the disk utility.

I've downloaded the El Captain .dmg and tried to burn it as is.

I also found a reference to extracting the InstallESD.dmg from within the main .dmg and tried burning with TransMac.

Neither one is recognized.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

daveinTN

 

[theMarble]

TransMac is your problem. I have never been able to create a bootable OS X/macOS with it. Do you have another Mac that you could use? With one, the process of creating an install USB is super easy.

 

[daveintn]

TransMac is your problem. I have never been able to create a bootable OS X/macOS with it. Do you have another Mac that you could use? With one, the process of creating an install USB is super easy.

Can you send me a link to the steps for creating it on a Mac. I'll see if I can find someone that has one.

Thanks,

 

[Amethyst1]

Can you send me a link to the steps for creating it on a Mac.

There you go. For this to work, the El Capitan DMG you downloaded needs to have the Install OS X El Capitan application inside it.

 

[daveintn]

The instructions are pretty straightforward. However, the command line is looking for the OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app file. Whereas the only El Capitain download I can find is in .dmg format?

Thanks,

DaveinTN

 

[Amethyst1]

Whereas the only El Capitain download I can find is in .dmg format?

Double-click the dmg file. What is in it?

 

[daveintn]

InstallMacOS.pkg. I assume the .app is compressed inside but I haven't been able to figure out how to extract it?

 

[Amethyst1]

InstallMacOS.pkg. I assume the .app is compressed inside but I haven't been able to figure out how to extract it?

Just running InstallMacOS.pkg is supposed to put the Install OS X El Capitan application in your Applications folder. Does that work?

If it doesn’t work, you can try extracting the pkg’s contents with Pacifist.

 

[daveintn]

Running the InstallMacOS.pkg worked. Coming from Windows, it's just not very intuitive that you have to install a package just so you can get to the install package.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Amethyst1]

Coming from Windows, it's just not very intuitive that you have to install a package just so you can get to the install package.

Plus the fact you need macOS to create a bootable macOS installer.