Doing a recovery without the main display

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phantom2000 Author

Level 1

7 points

Doing a recovery without the main display

I have an iMac and it's main monitor is not working. I have attached and external monitor and it used to work fine and I could mirror image by pressing Command-F1. Now, the computer is crashed somehow and I want to restore the computer to it's original settings(reinstall the operating system). I tried to go to recovery mode by pressing keys Command-R and it displays a grey screen on the external display but nothing happens after that. How can I go about this and get my external display to show everything so I can go to recovery mode and do the reinstallation?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 11, 2013 1:08 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

ElectronDebt

Level 1

9 points

Jan 20, 2014 7:13 PM in response to phantom2000

While this doesn't solve your problem with an iMac, others coming across this thread looking for an answer for their MacBook like I did have an easier way.

1. Plug in the external monitor

2. Plug in the power adapter

3. Boot up while holding Command-R to start recovery mode

4. After it boots up and gives you the grey pattern screen on the external monitor, close the lid of your Mac

5. The external monitor will become the main display and you can complete the recovery

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Answer 2

Nov 13, 2017 2:25 AM in response to phantom2000

Not sure if this is still relevant to anyone.

The screen on my macbook air is broken but I wanted to reformat the hdd before my next screen arrives.

I tried using recovery mode with an external display but found I was unable to see the dialogue boxes as described in the top answer for this post. The way in which I bypassed this issue was to remove the LVDS internal display connection from the motherboard. By doing that the mac defaulted to using the only available display for the dialogue boxes which was my external monitor. Sorry to be digging up such an old thread but I thought this may be a useful piece of information for someone.

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Answer 3

phantom2000 Author

Level 1

7 points

Jul 13, 2013 9:42 PM in response to BDAqua

I tested it out with the MacBook I had in my office and when I boot the computer in to Recovery mode, the dialog boxes are actually in the computer screen, not in the external monitor eventhough I set it as primary. I can see the background of the recovery mode screen in the other display so the only thing I can do was try to click on the dialog box that is in the computer screen which I can't see and drag it in to the external sceen. It's kind of like fishing. That is actually almost impossible to do so I resolved my issue by creating a new profile and deleting the existing one. I just wanted to post what I did here 'cause this might be usefull to someone in the future. Thanks.

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Answer 4

Oct 21, 2014 12:23 PM in response to ElectronDebt

Simple and brilliant. I just encountered this problem (unable to use recovery mode on my macbook with external monitor) and your solution worked perfectly for me. I just finished successfully repairing my disk without having to dig up firewire cables and s borrowed macbook for target disk mode.

Thanks so much.

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Answer 5

phantom2000 Author

Level 1

7 points

Jul 11, 2013 8:15 PM in response to BDAqua

No I have a Windows Computer. But I have managed to start up the computer. I can go in to Mac OS now. Still I want it reinstalled. I made my external display the main Display from the System Preferences but still it's going in to that Grey screen. Is there a software I can use from Mac OS to initiate the reinstalling process or is there anything I can do to get this computer to factory state?

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Answer 6

phantom2000 Author

Level 1

7 points

Jul 11, 2013 10:23 PM in response to BDAqua

I can access the mac without any issues. I can work on the mac with the external monitor and yes I can acess it from a Windows Computer using TeamViewer. I just want to do a reinstallation on the Mac.

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Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

238,847 points

Jul 11, 2013 3:52 PM in response to phantom2000

Do you have another Mac with Firewire around?

Target mode...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661

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Answer 8

BDAqua

Level 10

238,847 points

Jul 11, 2013 9:50 PM in response to phantom2000

Can you enable Screen Sharing on the Mac & get into it on the PC???

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Answer 9

BDAqua

Level 10

238,847 points

Jul 11, 2013 10:40 PM in response to phantom2000

Hmmm, this might be a problem, but from the PC canyou set the Mac to boot from the recovery Partition in sys prefs>Startup disk?

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Answer 10

phantom2000 Author

Level 1

7 points

Jul 11, 2013 10:44 PM in response to BDAqua

I think I can. When I do a restart, it should boot up in to that but I wanted to make sure when it does, it will show the things on the external display for me to carry on the reinstalltion. Will that be possible?

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