I gave my 27" Intel iMac to my son several years ago. After his recent move, the iMac won't boot. I tried Recovery Mode and was able to get to the Utilities window, but, the machine won't let me run First Aid on the Mac HD. FYI, the machine is running High Sierra.
I'm stuck. What's next in my repair saga?
Thanks, Bob.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: Intel iMac won't Boot
What year iMac is that?
Your next repair saga may be to simply replace the iMac with a newer machine.
Recovery mode is the appropriate place to start. If Disk Utility's First Aid can't or won't fix the restart problem then you may need to wipe the drive and reinstall the macOS.
There are several possible scenarios that might keep the iMac from booting properly and we can explore them here, but tbh your Intel-based iMac is considered "vintage" by Apple and is on the eve of its loss of continued support from Apple. If it is new enough (2017) then it may be able to run macOS 13 Ventura, but that is the last macOS available.
Does your son have any knowledge of this iMacs failure to boot?
Based on the evidence and your reply, the iMac may be toast.
We couldn't boot into the internet recovery to load a new copy of High Sierra and have no way to wipe the drive and install a copy of the OS. We just can't get past the lack of First Aid for the HD.
Thanks for the reply.
You might be able to create a bootable installer for the iMac.
But this will require the use of another Mac that is qualified to run (capable of running) some version of macOS that the old iMac can run. You could use this to boot, wipe and reinstall macOS. This assumes, though, that the drive in the old iMac is healthy and not running is some state of failure.
You may also be able to boot the iMac from an external SSD onto which macOS has been installed. If you do this, then you may be able to run disk diagnostics on the internal drive and either fix or wipe and reinstall macOS. You still have options.
The 27" iMac is a nice machine when it's running, but it's definitely on its way out. If you have the time and temperament you may get this one running again, but I wouldn't suggest putting any $ into it.
How to troubleshoot a non-booting 27" Intel iMac running macOS High Sierra?
