imac27 - Oops! Hard drive error.

[Edd_Wilts]

Hi All,
I have an issue with my late 2014 iMac27.
I was having issue where if i tried to download the Sierra update the machine would get half way through and the machine would restart.
I decided to do a fresh install so i downloaded the installed put it onto a USB and stupidly formatted the hard drive and tried to install sierra.
However now when i run the installer it tells me it couldnt install does to hard disk errors.
When i then run the Disk Utility it says i cannot fix it due to bootstrap errors.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Edd

 

[keysofanxiety]

It's a hardware issue, so you'll need to replace the hard-drive. There's no workaround and even if you managed to install Sierra, it would run like a bag of hammers due to the drive failures.

It would be recommended to replace your hard-drive with an SSD, as they're considerably more reliable and it will significantly increase your computer's performance in every aspect.

 

[Edd_Wilts]

Cheers thanks for that, would you attempt this yourself? I will have to get a price for it, bugger!

 

[keysofanxiety]

Cheers thanks for that, would you attempt this yourself? I will have to get a price for it, bugger!

I wouldn't personally attempt it, but then I'm a paranoid pooper. You can attempt it yourself if you want.

Alternatively you can purchase an SSD and plug it in via a USB 3 enclosure, then hold CMD+R on startup and install the OS to the external drive. This will still offer very good performance and it means you don't have to rip apart your machine.

 

[Edd_Wilts]

YEs i took a look at the instructions on installing a new hard drive and i think its a few levels above my level especially with my sausage fingers!!! So i have an external hard drive, if i format that for the mac i can run mac os from that?

 

[keysofanxiety]

YEs i took a look at the instructions on installing a new hard drive and i think its a few levels above my level especially with my sausage fingers!!! So i have an external hard drive, if i format that for the mac i can run mac os from that?

Yep, you can easily install the OS directly to an external drive in the same manner as you would normally install an OS (CMD+R on startup, or CMD+ALT+R for Internet Recovery). It's much more versatile than Windows when it comes to installing to a location.

 

[Fishrrman]

As keys said in the post above, it's trivial to boot and run from an "external booter".

What I'd suggest that you consider buying is a USB3 SSD drive, and set that up to be your booter.

It will literally run circles around the built-in hard drive (assuming the drive was working).

I'd just leave the old (presumed dead) drive "in place", with nothing on it.

So long as you're doing well with your external booter SSD (and perhaps a second attached drive as well), just "let things be" and run it that way for a few more years.

 

[Edd_Wilts]

To get a 1TB drive fitted its going to cost best part of £400!
So i was thinking of getting the Samsung T3 250gb (£109.99) for the operating system and use my regular external hard drive for any extra data?

 

[Fishrrman]

"So i was thinking of getting the Samsung T3 250gb (£109.99) for the operating system and use my regular external hard drive for any extra data?"

Yes.
This is the way you want to go.

You'll have to get used to more than one drive icon on the desktop, and you'll need to get comfortable "managing" files between drives.

But there's nothing difficult about that, not at all.

You'll just have to try this to see for yourself.