Help, I want to clean install and reformat my iMac 2008 to a single partition with El Capitan

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Level 1

38 points

Help, I want to clean install and reformat my iMac 2008 to a single partition with El Capitan

Hi, I'm having an old iMac coming all the way from 2008.

It's currently kind of broken since I can only access it from Recovery mode. Why? Because I had 2 partitions on it, in case I needed Snow Leopard to boot with a simple reboot, but I never actually used it so I changed my mind and had the idea to format the Snow Leopard partition removed and to have a single partition left, for El Capitan.

...And that's where I failed, because I made it to remove the partition, but it now just has only 1 partition left, and I formatted that as well, so right now, I'm left with NO OS X (El Capitan or Snow Leopard on it!).

I'm now in a situation with the ability to only access the iMac in Recovery Mode, but, again, still only 1 partition on it, and that's a 'half partition', since the other half isn't showing anywhere in Disk Utility. I tried erasing the entire thing by clicking the 'Samsung drive' and formatting (which doesn't works out), and I don't know how to repartition the 'Samsung drive' to a condition with one single partition for a full installed version of Mac OS X.

So, what am I doing wrong to not get a single partition that is for the entire 'Samsung drive'?

How can I get the job done to just do a complete fresh install of Mac OS El Capitan?

Can someone help me out with to get the old beast waking up and running again?

Posted on Sep 25, 2024 11:53 AM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

60,752 points

Sep 25, 2024 5:45 PM in response to coengi

The Recovery partition is needed if you want to access Recovery Mode. If you delete/erase it, then you will no longer be able to boot into Recovery Mode. At that point your only options are the original recovery DVD, or a full retail upgrade copy of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, or a bootable macOS 10.11 El Capitan USB installer. The latter is no longer possible unless you have access to another working Mac generally from 2007 to 2015.

Also, when booting into Recovery Mode use Command + Option + R so that you are not prompted to authenticate with your AppleID to confirm a previous purchase of El Capitan.

If you still have access to Recovery Mode, then use it to reinstall macOS. Then you can create a bootable macOS El Capitan USB installer if you still want or need to erase the whole physical drive.

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

146,684 points

Sep 25, 2024 1:27 PM in response to coengi

The bottom line is that you will need to boot that Mac from its original, grey, System Install DVD.

That Mac is too old to use Internet Recovery, which would be a requirement after erasing the startup drive. Either that or its System Install DVD, or some other method of booting such as a retail, white, Mac OS X Snow Leopard DVD which Apple no longer sells but remain available on the used market.

Those two grey discs must accompany the Macs they shipped with from cradle to grave. Find them.

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