27“ IMac 2017, folder with question mark at startup
I hard reset my iMac in recovery mode as I’m selling it and after successfully erasing the disk, I get a folder with a question mark inside when restarting the iMac. So as of right now I’m only able to access recovery mode.
here’s what I’ve tried to fix the problem:
- I went on terminal and checked if the date is correct, and it is.
- ive tried restarting while holding down the option key to choose a different disk, but no disk option appears.
- ive tried reinstalling macOS but I was not able to choose a disk to install it to, so I went back to disk utility and added a partition under the SSD. Then i was able to choose that disk to reinstall macos, but when the download was almost complete I get an error message
„an error occurred while preparing installation. Try running this application again“
and I have tried multiple times and get the same message.
- I went back into disk utility and ran first aid through all disks and an error was found on the HDD disk but after adding a partition, the error cleared and now I get a green check mark for all of them.
- ive tried restarting and reinstalling the macOS multiple times and keep getting the error message and the folder with a question mark on it.
One thing I noticed is that my mac was running the newest Ventura update and the only option I now have, is to reinstall macOS Sierra. Is it possible that the new Ventura update needs to be manually deleted before being able to install this older version of macOS Sierra? I’m not sure how to do that though.
I would also appreciate if someone double checked that my disk utility looks alright or if I’ve done the formst/erase wrong and need to redo it.
any suggestions and help is appreciated.
iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 13.1