Erased HD and OS inadvertantly

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Level 1

15 points

Erased HD and OS inadvertantly

I was running macOS Monterey version 12.7.4 on an iMac Late 2015 model. I wanted to prep the computer for resale and remove all personal data from the computer and used Disk Utility to erase the HD not knowing it would also delete the operating system. I've rebooted in Recovery Mode and tried to Reinstall macOS but I keep getting an error message, "An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again." After erasing the HD again and retrying three times, it's the same song and dance. Is there any hope on getting an OS back on this computer?

Earlier Mac models

Posted on May 7, 2024 6:21 PM

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Answer 1

sswilliams21 Author

Level 1

15 points

May 8, 2024 12:39 PM in response to Keith Barkley

My issue was that I was trying to restore to the original OS Sierra for this year/model. Apparently, there is a bug with OS Sierra that causes these issues I had.

here’s the article that helped me through it:

https://mrmacintosh.com/fixed-an-error-occurred-while-preparing-the-installation-macos-sierra-recovery-error/

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Answer 2

May 7, 2024 8:04 PM in response to sswilliams21

See if booting Recovery with Option-Command-R gets you further.

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Answer 3

den.thed

Level 9

77,536 points

May 7, 2024 8:07 PM in response to sswilliams21

Sounds like it is not erased and formatted properly.

Startup in macOS Recovery Mode, open Disk Utility, take and post a photo of the Disk Utility window.

Also keep in mind that you may need to re-format the drive and install the original installed macOS version, then let the new owner setup and upgrade the macOS.

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Answer 4

sswilliams21 Author

Level 1

15 points

May 7, 2024 11:48 PM in response to MrHoffman

I started from the beginning and did a recovery reboot doing Option-Command-R and it allowed me to restore to the latest OS system that I could and after two hours, this worked! I found an article that there is a bug with restoring from OS Sierra which is what the issue was. I was able to bypass that OS to a later one and got it reinstalled.

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Answer 5

den.thed

Level 9

77,536 points

May 7, 2024 7:02 PM in response to sswilliams21

Have a look at > What to do before you sell, give away, trade in, or recycle your Mac - Apple Support

At this point, you need follow the links in steps 6 & 7

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Answer 6

sswilliams21 Author

Level 1

15 points

May 7, 2024 7:30 PM in response to den.thed

Unfortunately, that’s precisely where I can’t move on from. Every time I try to install the the OS, it fails. A popup window appears saying it could not complete due to an error.

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