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Cannot reinstall macOS High Sierra

My iMac was stuck on the apple logo so I followed the advise on here to reinstall macOS High Sierra. However when I get to the install screen and it asks to select the disk where you want to install macOS there is no option. Any idea what I need to do?

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jun 6, 2020 8:17 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 6, 2020 1:00 PM

While booted from Recovery Mode or a macOS USB installer launch Disk Utility so you can either repair the file system (First Aid) or to erase the physical drive. To see the physical drive in Disk Utility you may need to first click on "View" within Disk Utility and selecting "Show All Devices" before the physical drive appears in the left pane of Disk Utility. Erase the physical drive as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled). If you erase the drive then all data on the drive will be lost if you don't have a backup.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208496


If you don't see the physical drive in Disk Utility, then the drive has most likely failed.


4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 6, 2020 1:00 PM in response to SimbaTheGreat

While booted from Recovery Mode or a macOS USB installer launch Disk Utility so you can either repair the file system (First Aid) or to erase the physical drive. To see the physical drive in Disk Utility you may need to first click on "View" within Disk Utility and selecting "Show All Devices" before the physical drive appears in the left pane of Disk Utility. Erase the physical drive as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled). If you erase the drive then all data on the drive will be lost if you don't have a backup.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208496


If you don't see the physical drive in Disk Utility, then the drive has most likely failed.


Jun 7, 2020 10:16 PM in response to SimbaTheGreat

SimbaTheGreat wrote:

I managed to run first aid and then I could see the disk but it was locked.
I tried looking at utility again to see if there was anything I could do and when I went back I couldn’t see the disk again.
if I try running first aid again it fails.

While I have seen Disk Utility fail when trying to run First Aid on a volume a second time it is really unusual. It does seem you may have a failing drive.

If I do manage to see the disk again how do I unlock it?

You would need to select the volume and then click the "mount" icon.

Cannot reinstall macOS High Sierra

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