having trouble loading OSX onto a new harddrive for my imac

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having trouble loading OSX onto a new harddrive for my imac

Hi,

I have a late 2009 Imac. I just installed a new Seagate harddrive in it after the old Seagate drive died. I am having a problem installing the OS X 10.6.4 that came with the computer originally. I insert the install disk, start the computer, hold c while it is starting up, then in the next menu I click on English as the language, next it says the OS is loading but stops in the middle of loading and a message comes up saying "OS X could not be installed on your computer". I try to click on disk utilities from the menu in the upper left but all of the options are grayed out. The two things I can choose are to restart the computer or to load from a back up . Any help on what I could try would be great.

iMac (27-inch Late 2009), Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Mar 23, 2015 6:34 PM

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Answer 1

babowa

Level 9

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Mar 23, 2015 7:01 PM in response to Nirro_

Did you format the new hard drive? If not, that might be the (or one of the) problem.

Have you tried to choose the Disk Utilities right after the language selection and before the OS install begins? If that works, you need to choose your hard drive on the left and then hit partition tab. Choose 1 partition, name it Macintosh HD, format is Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and, under Options, choose Apple Partition Map (I think I remember that correctly). Then click Apply. Hopefully, after that, let the installer do its thing.

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Answer 2

Mar 24, 2015 12:48 AM in response to Nirro_

Just to point out that it should be GUID Partition Table - not Apple Partition Map (Apple Partition Map is for Power PC Macs, yours is an intel iMac)

Other than that the process of formatting the drive is correct as stated by Babowa above.

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Answer 3

Nirro_ Author

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Mar 24, 2015 7:15 AM in response to babowa

After I click the language selection the loading bar opens automatically, I have no time to click anything. When the message "OS X could not be installed on your computer" comes up on the screen I have two options to click either restart computer or Load from time machine backup. I cant exit out of this message, also until this point I can not see the utilities drop down menu in the upper left. Once I do get the drop down menu it is all grey and I can't choose anything. I assume I have to format the hard drive due to it being a new one, but without being able to get into disk utilities I'm not sure how.

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Answer 4

babowa

Level 9

78,097 points

Mar 24, 2015 7:35 AM in response to Muufungman

Just to point out that it should be GUID Partition Table - not Apple Partition Map (Apple Partition Map is for Power PC Macs, yours is an intel iMac)

Oops - you are right - I was looking at the OS version and wasn't thinking Intel.......

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Answer 5

babowa

Level 9

78,097 points

Mar 24, 2015 7:44 AM in response to Nirro_

Do you have a bootable backup? Or another Mac? Or an external enclosure to put the new drive in and access it from another Mac? You should be able to boot from either and format your drive from there. If all else fails, you could book an appointment at your nearest Genius Bar, but I don't know if they will help as Apple considers the only thing user accessible in an iMac the RAM.

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Answer 6

Nirro_ Author

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Mar 24, 2015 8:00 AM in response to babowa

I do not have a bootable back up but I might be able to get one, I do have multiple other macpros but no imacs and I don't have an external enclosure. Do I need all three of these to format the hard drive?

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Answer 7

babowa

Level 9

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Mar 24, 2015 8:18 AM in response to Nirro_

No, just one you can plug into your Mac and boot from. Once booted, go to Disk Utility, choose your internal drive and format it.

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Answer 8

Nirro_ Author

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Mar 24, 2015 8:39 AM in response to babowa

So to clarify, I can plug my macpro into the imac using fire wire? and then boot up both and my imac hard drive should appear on the macpro utilities?

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