Have acquired a 20 inch iMac 8,1 running OS 10.9.5 This came from a friend and I am trying to erase and reformat the hard drive so no original data is left on. Firstly Disk Utility won't allow me to erase the disk and secondly I can't put any type of disc in the disc drive as it just pushes it out again.
I've erased, reformatted and installed the OS on several iMacs before but never had such problems. Has anyone any ideas?
If you cannot boot into Recovery Mode (command-r) you may need to use Disk Utility from the original discs that shipped with that Mac. If the SuperDrive eject the discs, try using an external DVD player.
If you cannot boot into Recovery Mode (command-r) you may need to use Disk Utility from the original discs that shipped with that Mac. If the SuperDrive eject the discs, try using an external DVD player.
Many thanks. Getting into Recovery Mode allowed me to erase and reformat the disc. The other side of the story is that the iMac concerned is replacing an older one that died totally and this later one is being restored from the back up from the earlier machine and which is currently in hand.
Thanks again
You're welcome. Good that it had Recovery Mode because you cannot erase a disk that is mounted.
Reformatting a hard drive on an iMac
