Struggling to install any OS

[ryandree]

Hi, I keep getting this when attempting to install any OS through the system restore function (not from time machine) just the macs built in reinstall. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this, I just want to install any OS at this point!

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Tell us what model iMac and do you have an operating system burnt to a thumb drive?

 

[DeltaMac]

The "OS X Base System" is NOT your boot drive. It's not much more than a virtual system, used to install OS X. You can't install the system while it is booted to the same system.
The destination disk (that you named) is not visible, which could mean that you erased the drive (not just the boot volume) which THEN means that you have to boot to another installer - either through Internet recovery, or an external bootable installer.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

First, important questions:
WHICH iMac do you have?

What year made?

Do you have personal data on the internal drive that you need to save?

Or... can you completely "nuke" the internal drive, in order to get going again?

You need to tell us the answers to ALL of the above.

IF it's 2011 or later, and IF you can afford to WIPE OUT the internal drive, do this:
1. Boot to INTERNET recovery (NOT to the "Recovery partition").
Command-OPTION-R at boot.
Keep holding it down until the internet symbol appears.
If you're connecting via wifi, you'll need your wifi password.

2. When you get to the utilities menu, DO NOT run the installer yet. Quit the installer and open Disk Utility instead.

3. Check the upper-left corner of Disk Utility. Is there a little "pop up menu"?
If there IS, choose "show all devices"

4. Choose the uppermost item in the list (on the left) that represents the PHYSICAL HARD DRIVE inside the iMac.

5. Choose to ERASE it to "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled", GUID partition format

6. Erase the drive and quit Disk Utility. Re-open the OS installer.

7. NOW try re-installing the OS. It will involve one or more reboots and take some time, be patient.

8. When done, you should see the setup screen. At the appropriate moment, you can tell setup assistant to use your backup to restore your personal data.

 

[ryandree]

OP:

First, important questions:
WHICH iMac do you have?

What year made?

Do you have personal data on the internal drive that you need to save?

Or... can you completely "nuke" the internal drive, in order to get going again?

You need to tell us the answers to ALL of the above.

IF it's 2011 or later, and IF you can afford to WIPE OUT the internal drive, do this:
1. Boot to INTERNET recovery (NOT to the "Recovery partition").
Command-OPTION-R at boot.
Keep holding it down until the internet symbol appears.
If you're connecting via wifi, you'll need your wifi password.

2. When you get to the utilities menu, DO NOT run the installer yet. Quit the installer and open Disk Utility instead.

3. Check the upper-left corner of Disk Utility. Is there a little "pop up menu"?
If there IS, choose "show all devices"

4. Choose the uppermost item in the list (on the left) that represents the PHYSICAL HARD DRIVE inside the iMac.

5. Choose to ERASE it to "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled", GUID partition format

6. Erase the drive and quit Disk Utility. Re-open the OS installer.

7. NOW try re-installing the OS. It will involve one or more reboots and take some time, be patient.

8. When done, you should see the setup screen. At the appropriate moment, you can tell setup assistant to use your backup to restore your personal data.

I will try this when I get round to it, but to answer your questions, I have nothing on the drive at all that i care about! I want to nuke it and fresh install, its an iMac (late 2013) I wouldn't know much more unless im sat next to it.

However i will try your internet recovery method and if that fails i will be back

 

[ryandree]

So I have managed to fix it through the terminal, and reformatting and making new CoreStorage volumes. It's now installing, however I have noticed that my HDD only shows 560gb, which 128gb of that is for the SSD. So I have lost approximately 500gb of storage, that doesn't show up on diskutil, and in Disk Utilities it shows up as 'Free Space' that cannot be removed. Any ideas?

 

[Fishrrman]

"So I have lost approximately 500gb of storage, that doesn't show up on diskutil, and in Disk Utilities it shows up as 'Free Space' that cannot be removed. Any ideas?"

Follow my instructions in post 4 to reclaim ALL your space "from the bottom up"...

 

[mcsey2k1]

OP:

First, important questions:
WHICH iMac do you have?

What year made?

Do you have personal data on the internal drive that you need to save?

Or... can you completely "nuke" the internal drive, in order to get going again?

You need to tell us the answers to ALL of the above.

IF it's 2011 or later, and IF you can afford to WIPE OUT the internal drive, do this:
1. Boot to INTERNET recovery (NOT to the "Recovery partition").
Command-OPTION-R at boot.
Keep holding it down until the internet symbol appears.
If you're connecting via wifi, you'll need your wifi password.

2. When you get to the utilities menu, DO NOT run the installer yet. Quit the installer and open Disk Utility instead.

3. Check the upper-left corner of Disk Utility. Is there a little "pop up menu"?
If there IS, choose "show all devices"

4. Choose the uppermost item in the list (on the left) that represents the PHYSICAL HARD DRIVE inside the iMac.

5. Choose to ERASE it to "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled", GUID partition format

6. Erase the drive and quit Disk Utility. Re-open the OS installer.

7. NOW try re-installing the OS. It will involve one or more reboots and take some time, be patient.

8. When done, you should see the setup screen. At the appropriate moment, you can tell setup assistant to use your backup to restore your personal data.

This post helped me, I didn't see my entire X5 drive until I selected "show all devices" - Thank you