If I purchase a ready made USB installer containg Mavericks to help me reinstall my late 2009 imac will it work if the USB stick is a USB 3 but all the ports are USB 2
Thank you in advance
Yes. USB 3 is backwards compatible. Although I'm not sure I would trust a copy of Mavericks other than from Apple.
Yes. USB 3 is backwards compatible. Although I'm not sure I would trust a copy of Mavericks other than from Apple.
it will be limited to at usb2 transfer rate which is about 40MB/sec ish. things are not quick to transfer
Do you have the Early, Mid, or Late 2009 model iMac? This is very important. You can get the exact model of the iMac by entering the system serial number here:
Check Your Service and Support Coverage - Apple Support
If you have the Late-2009 model, then you should be able to easily create a macOS 10.13 High Sierra USB installer using the instructions in this Apple article using your 2017 Mac:
Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
Unfortunately the only way to extract the older macOS installers from the .pkg file contained within the downloaded .dmg file of the older installers like 10.11, is by running the app on a Mac compatible with 10.11 which is generally one from 2008 to 2015. It is hard to say whether it is possible to even create the USB installer even with the older installer fully extracted since Apple is known to restrict things. I've always had a compatible Mac when I've created my USB installers.
I don't know what Mavericks installer you have since there are no links to download it directly from Apple that I am aware. Even then, it would likely require a compatible Mac to extract the real installer to the Applications folder since that is how all the other pre-10.13 installers work these days.
If you have the Early or Mid 2009 iMacs, then you can use the OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Retail Upgrade DVD to install Snow Leopard which then should allow you to access the 10.11 installer.
I agree with @dialabrain, that I would be wondering about the health of the hard drive in this iMac.
I am trying to reinstall through an internet connection and it seems to download extra components and files then appeard on the Hard drive but nothing seems to start. I have tried making a usb bootable drive on my late 2017 5k imac by using terminal but the install MAc OS mavericks is always showing a fault. I believe it has something to do with the time on my 2017 imac but the command for changing the time (date) does not appear to work. It is a big ask but do you know of any links etc that will help to make a bootable USB for MAvericks on my 2017 imac that would then work with m y 2009 imac.
Understand if this is too big a problem and thanks for your prompt answer to my first question.
Thank you for your reply. It was working fine until I wiped it to sell on for someone to use as a second monitor. Once it started giving problems I withdrew from sellinbg as I did not want to pass on a dud unit. It still will start in recovery mode but won't find any start up discs.
Thanks again
You're welcome. I guess the first question is are you certain the 2009 iMac is functional? It is seriously out of date and is considered obsolete.
Thank you so much. Have made booyable usb installer and the computer is up and running again
Thank you once again for your responses. Went with the advice on using High Sierra and now the computer is working again.
You're welcome.
You're welcome. Glad we could help you. And thanks for the follow up, so many people forget to do so.
USB 3 with 2009 imac
