Mid-2007 iMac — El Capitan Upgrade Made the DVD Drive Inoperable

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Mid-2007 iMac — El Capitan Upgrade Made the DVD Drive Inoperable

The iMac’s Internal Media Drive is Inoperable. Any Known Fixes?

The Issue: After the 10.11.6 El Capitan upgrade, once inserted, no DVD or CD disk will eject, read, or burn. This is on my Mid-2007 iMac

Downgrading to Yosemite Fixes this: Downgrading the iMac to Yosemite, makes the drive operable once more.

External DVD Drives Work on El Capitan: With El Capitan still installed, using an external DVD drive for reading and writing data is the only workaround I have come around thus far..

To Eject a Disk I have to Either:

Insert a separate disk into the media drive, so that both disks pop out after one another, which always works

or...

hold down the “C” button upon boot, which does not always work

So, how Do I Fix this Inoperability? :

Are there any known software installations, Terminal commands or Apple Script commands that will fix this?

iMac, OS X 10.11

Posted on Jun 8, 2019 11:02 AM

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Answer 1

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TheLittles Author

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Jun 9, 2019 12:42 PM in response to den.thed

So here’s what I did overnight

Using a Snow Leopard Disk to Perform a Clean El Capitan Install:

A Firmware Password: Got in the Way

My Mac would not reboot after erasing the Disk in Recovery Mode... This is because I was using a Firmware Password.... So, I booted up by holding down the Option Key and entered the Firmware Password, leaving my external DVD Drive Plugged In.

Then...

Use Snow Leopard DVD to Rid of Firmware PW:

Booting with the OS X 10.6.3 Snow Leopard Disk, I used Disk Utilities to rid of the partition. Then I installed Snow Leopard without Firmware.

Then...

With Snow Leopard Now Installed

I created a Time Machine Backup of this installation, should any errors have come up.

Finally, I did the update. I have it Transfer it using an older Mac, because it would not download off of the this iMac. My newest Mac just won’t download it, and being that it’s OS is beyond El Capitan, transferring from that is impossible.

Installing the updates, all now works!

[Edited by Moderator]

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Answer 2

den.thed

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Jun 8, 2019 1:45 PM in response to TheLittles

Before going back to Yosemite, I would try installing the 10.11.6 Combo Updater over the current El Capitan version.

see > https://support.apple.com/kb/dl1885?locale=en_US

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

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Jun 8, 2019 12:20 PM in response to TheLittles

You should get the installer from Apple and NOWHERE else. What version of Mac OS is installed on the computer now and was the computer prepared per the directions in https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065 . If it was not or you do not know for sure this is your starting point!

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Answer 4

den.thed

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Jun 9, 2019 8:11 AM in response to TheLittles

Now I'm starting to think your stumbling block is, that you have restored or installed an unsupported version of macOS onto your 2007 iMac.

I say that, because originally the 2007 iMac's came with 10.4 Tiger on a 2 Disc set. Then to properly move forward from Tiger, you needed to purchase either a 10.6 Snow Leopard Upgrade DVD or a 10.7 Lion USB key.

If you have either of the latter upgrades, then it seems like you may need to start over from scratch. Erase the drive, reinstall and upgrade the earlier OS X version. Then go to the Mac App Store and upgrade to the latest macOS for a 2007 iMac, which is El Capitan.

if you do not have either of those legitimate Upgrade versions for your 2007 iMac? You can still get and use a Snow Leopard Upgrade DVD to erase, reinstall and then properly upgrade to El Capitan using the mac App Store.

see > Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple

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Answer 5

den.thed

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Jun 8, 2019 8:05 PM in response to TheLittles

Hmm... you used the following instructions when updating to El Capitan?

How to upgrade to OS X El Capitan - Apple Support and then clicked on "Get El Capitan"

or optionally by going to > https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835434?ls=1&mt=12

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Answer 6

TheLittles Author

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Jun 8, 2019 1:08 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Thanks for the link. Last night, I used that link, as if it were something I was to sell.

El Captain was the installation that came with it. I had the DVD issue (perhaps that is why it was free?) to fix when booting up. It came with an External DVD Drive, Keyboard, and Mouse.

Booting into Recovery Mode, all was erased, reformatted, installed to factory settings, and then ultimately upgraded to El Capitan.

Prior to the Ultimate Upgrade (10.11.6), I used Yosemite: with all working— The internal DVD drive and all else. Having performed the upgrade, the Drive Went Dead (inoperable).

So, downgrading it works.

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Answer 7

TheLittles Author

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Jun 8, 2019 8:14 PM in response to den.thed

Neither. I installed it using recovery mode. Having researched this, I downgraded to see if it can officially operate in Yosemite, as discovered. Indeed it does.

I cannot downgrade to Yosemite using AppleStore, or can I? Where can I get an installation of Yosemite from Apple? Is available from the Apple Store?

I have the Time Machine Backup of Yosemite. I could restore to Yosemite, then perform an upgrade using that original link you provided. It would take a bit.

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Answer 8

rkaufmann87

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Jun 8, 2019 12:01 PM in response to TheLittles

This seems like you either had a corrupt download or install of El Capitan. El Capitan worked perfectly on my 2007 but I retired it years ago now.

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Answer 9

TheLittles Author

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Jun 8, 2019 6:57 PM in response to den.thed

Thank you!

I downloaded it, but it does not meet my system requirements. Why So?

Screenshot:

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Answer 10

den.thed

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Jun 9, 2019 12:58 PM in response to TheLittles

That is good news.

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Answer 11

TheLittles Author

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Jun 8, 2019 12:24 PM in response to rkaufmann87

This iMac was free, so I’m troubleshooting it, on my own will.

I’m using my 2018 MacBook Pro — Always.

But, I’m researching this, and the inoperability that is occurring seems to be a common phenomenon with performing an upgrade-to El Capitan on this model iMac.

So, where should I get the installer? I am curious if a Bootable USB installer will work. Or should I purchase the installer somewhere?

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Mid-2007 iMac — El Capitan Upgrade Made the DVD Drive Inoperable

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