Is there a disk or program that makes a damaged iMac new?

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Level 1

4 points

Is there a disk or program that makes a damaged iMac new?

My iMac is really messed up. No recovery drive. No Macintosh HD. I did all the usual things like repair, download Mac OS from the internet recovery. I have an external disk drive and there are USB ports on the iMac. I really want to restore this and make it "new". Is there a disc I can buy or download that I can put on a thumb drive so wipe out everything and really restore it like new? The only thing that shows up when I hit options is OS Base. Not worried about losing data or anything. It is a: Apple® - 27" iMac® - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive Purchased on: February 5, 2013 Model: MD095LL/A. Any help you can give is appreciated. BTW I don't have any computer knowledge other than all the research here and videos I've watched.

iMac 27″, macOS 10.12

Posted on May 25, 2021 4:17 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

padams35

Level 4

3,343 points

May 25, 2021 5:24 PM in response to travlnwoman

How to make a bootable USB installer: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
How to use disk utility (available on a recovery partition) to erase and reformate the drive. https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/erase-and-reformat-a-storage-device-dskutl14079/mac

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Answer 2

babowa

Level 9

78,315 points

May 25, 2021 6:04 PM in response to travlnwoman

Is the 10.12 OS version as shown in your signature what you were/are running before things got messed up? If so, the link to Disk Utility in Big Sur will not be helpful.

You can also try to see if the instructions here would help:

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

Try to get to internet recovery since you don't seem to have the local recovery: hold Option + Command + R while booting up. Keep holding the keys until you see a rotating world globe. Then wait for it to get to Apple's servers - will take a while. Doing this while being connected to your modem or router via an ethernet cable is better than WiFi. Then follow instructions in the link.

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Answer 3

travlnwoman Author

Level 1

4 points

May 25, 2021 7:12 PM in response to babowa

Thanks, I'll give that a try. I'm not sure which OS version was last used. The computer was last used in 2018 and up until then I did all the updates. I'll let you know if this works with the ethernet cable.

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Answer 4

travlnwoman Author

Level 1

4 points

May 29, 2021 4:12 PM in response to padams35

I'm still working on this problem. I need to download the Mac OS to my new thumb drive BUT it says: To use the Mac App Store, you need Mac OS 10.6.6 or greater. For more information, please click here. But I don't have a working Mac, just my windows laptop. Is there a way around this?

Thanks,

Kim

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Answer 5

travlnwoman Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 7, 2021 6:37 PM in response to travlnwoman

I wasn't sure how to "reply to all" so hopefully all of you that helped me will see this post. I did get my iMac up and running but in a weird way. I got a 128 gig USB 3.1 flash drive and used the instructions I was given here to make the bootable installer with El Capitan on it. I wasn't able to get it to load to the iMac's hard drive using the terminal command I was given here. The command R only would show Mac Base OS no matter what I tried.

At some point I partitioned the flash drive into the OS and a Recovery thing. I have no idea how I did this but now the computer works as long as the flash drive is in the port. I am so happy because it only cost me $20 for the flash drive and a never give up attitude to make this work instead of having to come up with the money for a new computer for my grandson's 13th birthday present. I want to thank you all for all the suggestions and help you gave me. I've learned so much throughout this whole process.

Sincerely,

Kim A.

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Answer 6

babowa

Level 9

78,315 points

Jun 7, 2021 7:24 PM in response to travlnwoman

Glad to hear it works. You do need to monitor this because you most likely did not disassociate the computer from your Apple ID which means your grandson will not be able to set it up with his own Apple ID.

At least sign out of iCloud and your Apple ID before you give it to him and delete all of your files.

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Answer 7

travlnwoman Author

Level 1

4 points

May 25, 2021 7:18 PM in response to padams35

Great! I'll try that. I'll let you know how it goes. Just got to get that 14 Gig usb flash drive. I feel more hopeful that this problem is going to be fixed!

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Answer 8

babowa

Level 9

78,315 points

May 25, 2021 8:49 PM in response to travlnwoman

If it was in 2018, it would have been 10.12 or 10.13. So you can use the drop down menu to get the right instructions for your OS version which will be different than the ones for big sur.

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Answer 9

babowa

Level 9

78,315 points

May 29, 2021 6:15 PM in response to travlnwoman

You need a Mac to download any Mac OS - cannot do it on a Windows machine. Try to find a friend or beg at your nearest Apple store.

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Answer 10

travlnwoman Author

Level 1

4 points

May 30, 2021 6:53 AM in response to babowa

LOL, I was afraid of that! OK, someone around here has to have one. I have until September 22nd to get this fixed. It is going to be my grandson's 13th birthday present :-)

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Answer 11

travlnwoman Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 8, 2021 5:39 AM in response to babowa

Thanks, I will be sure to do that!

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Is there a disk or program that makes a damaged iMac new?

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