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Erasing hard drive on iMac 5,2

I have an old iMac 5,2 (circa 2006) that I am trying to erase the hard drive on so I can recycle it. I tried using Disk Utility without any luck, so I tried to reinstall the old OSX using the discs that came with the computer. When I insert Mac OS X Install Disc 2, Installer gets about halfway through the process, stops, and gives me the message "There were errors installing the software: Please try installing again." I have tried several different startup key combinations to get back into Disk Utility (or anything else for that matter), but it keeps coming back up to Installer and asking me to insert Disc 2 to continue to process. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get Installer to close and/or how to get back to Disk Utility mode or any sort of regular startup to see if I can try another way to erase the hard drive? Thanks!

Posted on Sep 4, 2020 10:59 AM

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Posted on Sep 4, 2020 11:20 AM

Disc 1 has Utilities and OS X Installer.


1. Boot up from Disc 1 holding the Option or C key and open Disk Utility.

2. Highlight the first Drive in the Disk Utility sidebar list and select the Erase tab.

3. Click the Erase button and wait for it finish, then back out of Utilities and reinstall or recycle.

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6 replies

Sep 4, 2020 12:48 PM in response to den.thed

Thanks for the help! I selected Disk Startup first, and that just took me back to the Installer asking to put in Disc 2 again. I tried booting up from Disc 1 again and was able to get to the Utilities icon right from there. I'm in Disk Utility now doing a Secure Erase with about 12 hours to go on it--fingers crossed that this does the trick!

Erasing hard drive on iMac 5,2

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