Failed attempt at imac restore :(

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Level 1

4 points

Failed attempt at imac restore :(

I was trying to restore my 2009 iMac with Mountain Lion - I made a USB of mountain lion for installation, and booted off it.

Using disk utility, i began to erase with all zeros over my Macintosh HD 2TB HDD. This froze when it was almost complete while it was in a state saying something like "creating secondary file". So I forced shut down, and rebooted off the USB, since then I'm stuck on a grey screen with the spinning circle, trying to boot off the USB. I've tried the USB numerous times. I tried booting off the DVD - it just spits it back out, I've installed OSX onto an external HDD and it still won't boot off that. It is as though it stops reading USB while on the grey screen. I also tried a USB with recovery on it. Still no luck.

I may have gone the wrong way for deleting all my other files (I was wanting to sell the iMac as I just bought a new one) but now I'm in a bit of trouble! Can anyone help?

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), October 2009 i7 iMac

Posted on Oct 11, 2013 6:02 PM

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Answer 1

nbar

Level 5

7,019 points

Oct 11, 2013 6:05 PM in response to 27bas

You are running Mountain Lion, correct?

Can you access internet recovery > option + command + R at boot?

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Answer 2

27bas Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 11, 2013 6:11 PM in response to nbar

I've also tried Internet recovery - it downloads the software in about 15 minutes, but then is stuck on the grey screen of doom again, I've left that for at least an hour.

I'm unsure if it is doing something for this time. I get the feeling I've done something with the HDD...

I just remembered, after i ended disk utility prematurely, I tried to reinstall Mountain Lion at that point, however it said the drive didn't have enough space... for 2TB, it should!

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Answer 3

Tlix

Level 4

1,425 points

Oct 11, 2013 6:12 PM in response to nbar

Internet Recovery is only viable on mid-2010 iMac or later.

Rather than erasing the internal hard drive directly try repartioning it if you can. Go into Disk Utility and select the top drive and go into the partition tab. Create a new single partition disk and apply that.

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Answer 4

27bas Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 11, 2013 6:16 PM in response to 27bas

Update: I just tried something I hadn't - removing the power cord for an hour.

I've rebooted and attempted internet recovery.

For the first time, it has asked me to select a network and is now saying >1hour to download which seems more realistic for me. Maybe it will somehow work now...

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