Hard drive locked when reinstalling macOS
I am trying to reinstall macOS High sierra on my intel iMac after a factory reset. when inattempt to install the OS my hard drive is saying its locked. Can anybody help?
iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 11.2
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User profile for user:
JCorHelps
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Community Specialist
Hi Kod3030,
It looks like you're having issues reinstalling macOS on your iMac. We'd like to help you get this sorted out.
First make sure you completely erased your drive and all partitions on it using these steps: How to erase an Intel-based Mac. If everything was erased correctly but you still see a locked drive, go to Disk Utility from the Recovery screen and select your drive on the left side. Are you given an option to unlock the drive? If so, enter in the password you use to log into your Mac.
It's possibly your drive may be locked with a firmware password. Try the steps in the "How to turn off a firmware password" section of this support article: Set a firmware password on your Mac. If you have a firmware password set that you don't remember, the "If you forgot your firmware password" will tell you what to do next.
If your disk is not locked with a firmware password, try reinstalling again but this time start in Recovery using one of the key combinations in the "Other macOS installation options" section here: How to reinstall macOS. Those key combination will start up from macOS Recovery over the internet.
If more help is needed, reach out to Apple Support next: Get Support.
Cheers.