Can't get into hardware test software Mac Mini early 2009

Mac OS X El Capitan

In the owner's manual, it says to hold down the D key when starting up the machine to get to the screens that let you choose hardware tests to run.

When I hold down the D key, the computer just boots up to the main operating system.


From reading online, I was able to find a way to get to a screen that lets you choose which device to boot to. However, unlike some screen shots that I have seen on the web, I don't see a recovery drive as one of the drives on that screen.

Posted on Dec 24, 2018 9:57 PM

Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 25, 2018 4:11 AM

Sounds like you previous erased the entire disk. With the initial installation the HD includes the hardware test software and it is on the Mac OS disk that came with the Mini.

You can download the Hardware test software here. It says how to run it from a USB thumb drive

https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest

Also see the following for another method for running it

https://gist.github.com/drewreece/2e5eed7dbfbd5dd7e929

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 25, 2018 4:11 AM in response to Community User

Sounds like you previous erased the entire disk. With the initial installation the HD includes the hardware test software and it is on the Mac OS disk that came with the Mini.

You can download the Hardware test software here. It says how to run it from a USB thumb drive

https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest

Also see the following for another method for running it

https://gist.github.com/drewreece/2e5eed7dbfbd5dd7e929

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Can't get into hardware test software Mac Mini early 2009

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