I have a 2009 iMac which was in my son's possession. Somehow the OS was wiped clean. I'm trying to reinstall High Sierra and have created a bootable disk on a flash drive. When it comes time to select the drive for installation, the only choice given is the flash drive disk...which says "this disk it is locked."
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Reinstalling High Sierra on 2009 iMac
- Thread starter davshev
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I m very sure you need a copy of snow leopard to reboot or install anything on a Mac from that era,, pre Lion OSX.
I would suggest using the "internet recovery" method (command + R at startup)
which should reinstall to factory settings.
unless someone made a "Time Machine" back up of the iMac.
I would suggest using the "internet recovery" method (command + R at startup)
which should reinstall to factory settings.
unless someone made a "Time Machine" back up of the iMac.
It already had High Sierra on it and was working fine....until my son got hold of it.😞
From the bootable installer, open Disk Utility and format the internal hard drive.
Use Disk Utility to erase an Intel-based Mac https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208496
How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210898
Use Disk Utility to erase an Intel-based Mac https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208496
How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210898
that was installed onto Snow Leopard, then probably mavericks or Mt Lion.
My 2010 MacBook Air needs a fresh install of Snow Leopard when I get a new ssd drive.
even with using Internet recovery
In disk utility I don't see the hard drive. I think this is bad.
Attachments
I don't see a hard drive in disk utility. Does that mean it's fried?
Attachments
The drive is listed under "Internal" ...
It's the device listed as "ST_M13FQBL Media"
The drive that you see (the disk is locked), is your USB flash drive, the one you are using for the installer.
So, you COULD try to erase the ST_M13FQBL Media.
Although that will likely end in an error of some kind. It appears to be a typical failure indication on an older Seagate hard drive.
It's the device listed as "ST_M13FQBL Media"
The drive that you see (the disk is locked), is your USB flash drive, the one you are using for the installer.
So, you COULD try to erase the ST_M13FQBL Media.
Although that will likely end in an error of some kind. It appears to be a typical failure indication on an older Seagate hard drive.
On the upside, you won't have to break through any stickies/paste to get into that model of iMac. The front glass is held on with magnets.
I don't think it's worth the trouble. You can get an 2009 iMac on Ebay for about the cost of the hard drive.
Not likely. eBay charges taxes now. Plus there's the shipping.
Not saying that it's worth your time or money to repair this machine, more so just that eBay is a ripoff in many cases.