Accidentally deleted operating system

Question

Level 1

9 points

Accidentally deleted operating system

Hi guys

I am about to sell my Mac Mini (June 2011). I acidentally deleted my hard drive, including the operating system "partition" that is set up by default. When I start up the Mac, a folder with a ? appears.

I found my old copy of Snow Leopard and tried to install that over an external DVD drive. Sadly, this does not seem to work. When I boot up with the DVD drive attached, pressing either options or command+r, the Mac boots with the Apple symbol but does not seem to move beyond it.

Is there any way I can fix this?

I have the following at my disposal:

A DVD drive

Snow Leopard DVD

An external hard drive that I cannot erase, but could install something on

The internet (to download stuff from)

Thanks

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9), Latest iLife was installed before

Posted on Apr 21, 2014 11:15 AM

Reply

Answer 1

keg55

Level 6

11,743 points

Apr 21, 2014 11:17 AM in response to Gutek

To boot from your SL DVD, you need to press 'C' at startup. Have you tried this?

Reply

Answer 2

Gutek Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 21, 2014 11:20 AM in response to keg55

Thank you.

Yes, I have tried this as well and it goes to the Apple boot screen and does not move beyond. I can see my DVD drive trying to access stuff but once it goes into the Apple boot screen it just stops and doesn't move anymore.

Reply

Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

207,367 points

Apr 21, 2014 11:21 AM in response to Gutek

Did your Mini come with Snow Leopard pre installed? If not then you need to use the disks that came with the Mini originally and install the original system. Those disks should be included with the mini when it's sold.

This Apple document describes what must be followed: What to do before selling or giving away your Mac

OT

Reply

Answer 4

Gutek Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 21, 2014 11:24 AM in response to Old Toad

Thanks for your reply.

This Mac did not come with any DVD. It's the model without a DVD drive. I think Lion was pre-installed.

Reply

Answer 5

varjak paw

Level 10

170,200 points

Apr 21, 2014 11:42 AM in response to Gutek

If the system came with Lion, then you'll need to reinstall either from the Recovery partition, or if you deleted that as well via Internet Recover. Instructions for both can be found in this support article:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

Regards.

Reply

Answer 6

Gutek Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 21, 2014 11:43 AM in response to Gutek

Ok, I fixed it myself. Internet recovery works now. I had to restart my Time Capsule. Now Command+R worked like a charm. Thanks guys!

Reply