My imac mid 2010 will not boot. The boot window starts, shows the progress bar and thats it.
A buddy had a CD rom with OS 10 on it, but my imac cd rom drive doesn't work.
I would like to know if there is a way to create a bootable usb drive using the os on the CD rom while using a windows computer.
iMac Line (2012 and Later)
The 2010 iMac shipped with a version of OSX 10.6.3 so your friend's OSX 10.4.8 DVD will not work. I'm not even sure the retail Snow Leopard DVD will work.
According to this Apple article the 2010 iMac should be capable of Internet Recovery.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202313
What happens when you try to boot into Internet Recovery Mode and Recovery Mode? Did you use an Ethernet cable to connect your iMac to your router to eliminate any possible WiFi issues?
If Verbose Mode doesn't provide any clues, then an easy way to test the iMac is to create a bootable Knoppix Linux USB drive using Etcher (Mac/Windows/Linux). Option Boot the Knoppix USB drive and select the orange icon labeled "EFI". See if Knoppix will boot to the Desktop. If Knoppix boots to the desktop, then click on the "Start" menu on the bottom left of the Taskbar and navigate to "System Tools --> GSmartControl". Within the GSmartControl app double-click on your iMac's drive icon to access the health information and report. Post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.
The 2010 iMac shipped with a version of OSX 10.6.3 so your friend's OSX 10.4.8 DVD will not work. I'm not even sure the retail Snow Leopard DVD will work.
According to this Apple article the 2010 iMac should be capable of Internet Recovery.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202313
What happens when you try to boot into Internet Recovery Mode and Recovery Mode? Did you use an Ethernet cable to connect your iMac to your router to eliminate any possible WiFi issues?
If Verbose Mode doesn't provide any clues, then an easy way to test the iMac is to create a bootable Knoppix Linux USB drive using Etcher (Mac/Windows/Linux). Option Boot the Knoppix USB drive and select the orange icon labeled "EFI". See if Knoppix will boot to the Desktop. If Knoppix boots to the desktop, then click on the "Start" menu on the bottom left of the Taskbar and navigate to "System Tools --> GSmartControl". Within the GSmartControl app double-click on your iMac's drive icon to access the health information and report. Post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.
Unless you have the original OSX DVD for your iMac I doubt you will be able to install macOS from your friends DVD. If your macOS has been updated, then the tools on the DVD may be too old and not safe to use on the newer OS.
What version of macOS is currently installed on the iMac?
How far does the progress bar get? If it is less than halfway then you may be able to see errors or at least where it stalls out by booting with Verbose Mode which displays the boot log on the screen during the first part of the boot process.
Try booting into Safe Mode which will disable any unnecessary drivers, Startup & Login items, as well as running a file system check and it will remove some temp & cache files.
See if you can run the Apple Hardware Test.
You can try booting into local Recovery Mode using Command + R to run Disk Utility First Aid or to reinstall macOS. If macOS version 10.12.4+ has been installed on this iMac, then you may be able to boot into Internet Recovery Mode (Command + Option + R).
On an older iMac, it is very likely the hard drive is beginning to fail. Verbose Mode could reveal a failing hard drive if you happen to notice any disk I/O errors.
Its running os 10.13.6 imac27.
The DVD's are original from apple OS 10.4.8. I just need to install anything on it to see if it will work. I'll update it back later.
I've tried safe mode and that wont load, also recovery mode wont work either. I tried internet recovery mode but since its an older model I was told it wouldn't work. Anyways tried it and didn't work. Gave me an error I couldn't even find online.
Verbose mode is the only thing I haven't tried. Will do that tonight.
I'm almost sure it can be fixed with the proper tools.
It seems that for internet recovery to work I need to download an update.
I will try again tonight wired directly to the router. I know it was asking for the wifi credentials, then it started to download something I guess, but it gave an error. I cant remember what it was. But when I looked online nothing came up with that same code.
As for the verbose mode, I read through it, and its a bit out of my league. I'll read through the last you sent me about creating the bootable knoppix.
How to create a bootable usb from CD rom using windows
