I have a IMac from 2008, and I’m trying to boot into Internet recovery mode. But the thing is i’ve held control R, shift, control alt R, Command R. Even if it’s not listed here, I’ve tried them all and no matter what they don’t work. What happens is hold them and instead of getting the loading bar, I get the spinning one and I just booted into Mac like normal.
Earlier Mac models
Internet Recovery Mode is not available until the Late-2009 Macs, so with a 2008 model you just have local Recovery Mode which boots from a hidden recovery partition on your internal hard drive. More than likely the internal hard drive is failing.
Unless you are able to replace the internal drive & have the OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard upgrade DVD or access to another Mac (2007 to 2015) to create a bootable macOS 10.11 El Capitan USB installer, then it is time to retire this iMac since booting macOS externally is just too slow over USB2.
Internet Recovery Mode is not available until the Late-2009 Macs, so with a 2008 model you just have local Recovery Mode which boots from a hidden recovery partition on your internal hard drive. More than likely the internal hard drive is failing.
Unless you are able to replace the internal drive & have the OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard upgrade DVD or access to another Mac (2007 to 2015) to create a bootable macOS 10.11 El Capitan USB installer, then it is time to retire this iMac since booting macOS externally is just too slow over USB2.
Are you using a wireless or USB keyboard...?
What OS X versions is the Early 2008 iMac running...?
What are you trying to do or accomplish in recovery mode...?
Do you have the original Leopard disc set, a Snow Leopard Upgrade DVD or the Lion Upgrade on Flash Drive...?
If so, you should be able to insert and startup with the Option/Alt key using most any USB keyboard.
Internet Recovery is Option-Command-R.
Use macOS Recovery on an Intel-based Mac - Apple Support
Regards.
Booting into Internet, safe mode
