Installed Apple Recovery Disc in iMac, but despite the “full” bar does NOT progress.

Question

Level 1

8 points

Installed Apple Recovery Disc in iMac, but despite the “full” bar does NOT progress.

I have an mid 2011 iMac A1311 21.5 that up till 2 days ago was running fine, until I got a split screen, with no other option to “X” out other than to shut it down. This happened twice. On the third time of rebooting, it got stuck in a loop, where the Apple progress bar would get to 50%, then the unit would shut down and start up again. I can NOT get into recovery mode, or safe mode, or reinstall over WiFi. I finally installed the original CD Apple disc 2 into the DVD and pressed c. I am now STUCK with a full progress bar for the last 1 1/2 hours. The left back corner gets much hotter than the right side. I did run a ‘Hardware diagnostics’ with NO errors. I was running High Sierra on it. I tried making a bootable USB drive using my other iMac 2013 running Catalina, but it won’t let me get the download off the Apple site. Any suggestions where to go from here??

iMac 21.5", macOS 10.13

Posted on May 11, 2020 12:42 PM

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Answer 1

raina_b22

Community Specialist

May 12, 2020 12:13 PM in response to RGK9Ruler

Hey there RGK9Ruler,

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. I understand you’re having issues installing Mac OS X from the Apple Recovery Disc on your iMac. I’ll be happy to help with this.

At this point, you may want to perform an SMC and NVRAM reset on your Mac:

How to reset the SMC of your Mac

Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac

After this, try to boot into recovery mode once more and format the Macintosh HD, then attempt to reinstall once more. This will of course remove any current data on your Mac. This article has more details on how to do this:

How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery

If you’re still unable to boot into recovery, try using another keyboard or USB port on your iMac to make sure the issue is not related to that. Then try once more.

Regards.

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Answer 2

rose_10

Community Specialist

May 18, 2020 12:45 PM in response to RGK9Ruler

Hey RGK9Ruler,

Thanks for going through those steps and providing those details. Have you tried booting into safe mode yet? If not, give this step a try and see if you're able to get into your Mac:

How to use safe mode on your Mac

If the issue is still occurring after going through the steps and you’re not able to get into recovery, you’ll want to reach out to Apple Support at the following link to look further into this with you:

Get Support

Take care.

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Answer 3

RGK9Ruler Author

Level 1

8 points

May 18, 2020 12:27 PM in response to raina_b22

I did ALL the steps, even tried to get the recovery through the WIFI. I get the Apple logo, the bar progresses to about 66% then I get a blank white screen. I will try to use the MAc OS X Install disc 2 pressed “c” and see if I can get that to work. I did not get the recovery system to boot up. I’m back where I started caught in a loop where I get the Apple logo, 66% progression, then a white screen, after about 3 minutes the computer restarts itself. I’m at a loss.

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Answer 4

rose_10

Community Specialist

May 19, 2020 12:19 PM in response to RGK9Ruler

Hey RGK9Ruler,

If you’re unable to access recovery and are still having issues, you’ll want to reach out to Apple Support at the following link to look further into this with you:

Get Support

Take care.

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Answer 5

den.thed

Level 10

82,384 points

May 20, 2020 8:28 AM in response to RGK9Ruler

You can not use the disc set from a different computer. If you do not have the original 10.6.6 disc set that came with that iMac, then you will need to make an installer on a USB flash drive or contact your local Apple Authorized Service Provider and have them help you reinstall the macOS.

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Answer 6

rkaufmann87

Level 10

143,886 points

May 20, 2020 8:57 AM in response to den.thed

Doing okay, we are all well. I have been working from home since mid March. My job is essential as well however I anticipate a 10% reduction in pay that will go into effect July 1 so I'm not thrilled about that.

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