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I was just given an iMac 27" A1312, which turns on but only to the flashing folder with a question mark. I'm pretty green on this stuff and was wondering what the best way to obtain a startup disk would be so that I might get this thing working.
iMac
If the question mark is persistent, and your Mac does not start up normally:
If the question mark is persistent, and your Mac does not start up normally:
Samuel_Watt wrote:
I do have access to another Mac. How might that help me?
What year and model is the other Mac?
You might be able to create a macOS bootable installer, How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support, for macOS High Sierra to install macOS to the iMac.
If the iMac has a failed hard disk, you could purchase an external SSD for cheap then install macOS to it using the bootable installer.
Jack
That means the iMac can't find a system to boot into. Follow the instructions already offered to get into the Recovery mode and try to reinstall the system from there.
It'll look somewhat like this:
If you can't get into the Recovery volume to do this then give the 2011 iMac an Irish Wake for a great sendoff.
Do not spend ANY more the $20 on this machine as it is really only worth $200 in perfect condition. What you are describing is the computer cannot find a startup volume. This could be due to a failed hard disk or no OS installed on it. First, try starting in the Recovery Partition and run First Aid (located in Disk Utility) on the hard disk. Run First Aid 2-4 times back to back, if ANY errors appear then your HD has failed and you should stop there.
To start in the Recovery Partition, hold down Command + R on startup. If it will not start up in Recovery Partition, that is another good indication to stop there.
It was given to you for a reason, basically it has no worth, it's obsolete and parts are not readily available for it.
Hello!
As others have stated, try to access macOS Recovery by holding Cmd-R at startup.
Do you have access to another Mac?
Jack
Thanks for the advice. I figured it wasn't worth much but it looks pretty cool so I thought I would give it a shot.
I do have access to another Mac. How might that help me?
Also, I don't have a keyboard for this thing so I'll have to figure out something for that before I can try much.
Startup Disk for 2011 iMac 27" A1312
