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trying to rebuild 2006 white imac - An Error occurred while preparing the installation. try running this application again"

Dear all,

i have a 2006 imac - White. I am trying to rebuild the OS on it. I have done the following;


Rebooted the machine using CMD + R

Robooted the NVRAM using; Option-Command-P-R

I have attempted safe mode and just get flashing circle.


the error message i get is; "An Error occurred while preparing the installation. try running this application again"


i have wiped the disk already.


i have connected to the wifi


i have changed the date and time to the correct one.


Any more advice would be greatly appreciated. We are wanting to re use this mac for work

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Nov 17, 2021 1:03 PM

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Question marked as Apple recommended

See if you can buy a DVD copy of Snow Leopard… should be about $39.. start out with resetting the smc/pmu then zapping the pram 3-4 times on startup.. here’s how to do that( link) https://www.macworld.com/article/224955/how-to-reset-a-macs-nvram-pram-and-smc.html

after you have the snow leopard dvd , assuming your 2006 imac has a dvd drive in it, put it in the drive label side up, and restart,holding down the ‘C’ key on the keyboard… that’ll make your imac boot from the dvd drive..


john b

Posted on Nov 17, 2021 1:48 PM

2 replies
Question marked as Apple recommended

Nov 17, 2021 1:48 PM in response to Drinkdontthink

See if you can buy a DVD copy of Snow Leopard… should be about $39.. start out with resetting the smc/pmu then zapping the pram 3-4 times on startup.. here’s how to do that( link) https://www.macworld.com/article/224955/how-to-reset-a-macs-nvram-pram-and-smc.html

after you have the snow leopard dvd , assuming your 2006 imac has a dvd drive in it, put it in the drive label side up, and restart,holding down the ‘C’ key on the keyboard… that’ll make your imac boot from the dvd drive..


john b

trying to rebuild 2006 white imac - An Error occurred while preparing the installation. try running this application again"

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