Bblackdog2016
Level 1
(4 points)
Q: install DVD does not recognize my internal HD on a 2008 iMac
I'm looking for suggestions here. My 94 yr old mother has been using the 2008 iMac 8.1 for internet/email. We needed to upgrade from her OS X 10.5 to be able to upgrade to a newer version of safari to access some banking sites. I upgraded the memory. Sister has a 2010 iMac with OS X 10.6.2 install/restore dvd. I went to update. I may have caused the initial problem because after reading info seemed i could create a second partition on the 250 GB HD and use timemachine to back up before preceding. Didn't see any warnings about adding the partition. (Yes if I hadn't forgotten my external HD I wouldn't have had to try this, but I did forget it.) Everything seemed fine making the partition, but time machine bogged down and hung up. After trying many things I ended up erasing and zeroing out the internal HD using extended (journaled), recreating a single partition using GUID guidelines thinking I could just do a clean reinstall. BUT, while I can verify/repair erase etc the internal HD from Disk Utility when booted up from my external HD if I boot from the OS install DVD it does not recognize the internal HD. ? ? ? Gives Cannot update this Mac message. if I run Install from the external drive start up again, no offer to go to the DU from the install program. I can access everything in DU when run off the ext. drive start up.
Why DU works on the internal HD from the ext start up (which was made with the Install 10.6.2 DVD) but not when booted from the DVD has left me stumped. The DVD just doesn't see it. When booted from the DVD with the external drive it sees that fine. Looking for any ideas, thank you in advance. By the way the machine had no problems before I started all this : ) live and learn!
iMac
rkaufmann87
Level 9
(58,476 points)
Bblackdog2016 wrote:
Let me just confirm with a more specific question. The internal HD has been erased, and so far have been unable to locate the original restore disk for this iMac. So my better question is would the 10.6 update be able to do an original install of 10.6 on the blank HD?
Correct. When the DVD arrives, put the DVD in and start up while holding down the C key per Apple's instructions in Startup key combinations for Mac - Apple Support. From there you can install OS X onto the HD, however if the drive is already erased. I would re-format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID partition from the DVD. Once it has be re-formatted, then install OS X.
After OS X has been installed then download and install the 10.6.8 update combo from Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
Once the update combo has been installed, then open the Mac App Store and run Update and install any other updates.
After all updates have been installed, you are finally ready to download and install El Capitan 10.11.6 from the Mac App Store.
