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erased macintosh hd and recovery hd

Hi, I was installing Window's XP on my 2009 iMac by booting up from Windows XP CD, did not use Disk Utility as it does not support XP. I was able to install it, but then don't have any of the driver, so my iMac is mute and dumb, and could not go online… :-( When I try to boot from OSX, I found to my horror that Both the Macintosh HD and Recovery HD are gone! When I hit Option while booting, Windows HD is the only hd showing. So now it only boot up into Windows XP, and holding Command and R key does not get the iMac into recovery mode either. And I don't have any cd with the iMac. I spent all day today trying to figure out how to get my OSX back, but nothing worked… Please help me, Thank you very much!!! -Ming

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Mar 29, 2015 4:16 PM

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41 replies

Mar 29, 2015 6:55 PM in response to yinming

If windows is installed on a single partition you'll probably have to erase the drive, reformat it for Mac, install Snow Leopard, use software update to get up to 10.6.8, access the app store to upgrade to Yosemite and that install will create the recovery partition. THEN run BootCamp assistant and reinstall Windows. Seems like a lot of work but I know no other way.

Mar 30, 2015 5:16 AM in response to SeaPapp

When I was installing Windows XP, I remembered that I assigned 20gig of space for the partition. But now the 20gig is the only thing showing in Windows (C drive), and the rest of hard drive about 480gig is not where to be found.

So if I re-install Snow Leopard with a CD, would I be prompted to reformat the drive? Or is it something I have to do before re-installing? If so, how do I do it?

Another question I have is about iMac freezes up. I bought this used, and was told that it freezes up for no reason, and I have to re-boot it when it happens, and the re-boot sometimes can fail several times. That was why I wanted to install Windows in the first place, hoping it to go away. Now the whole thing is useless, :-( This seems to be a common problem with 2009 iMac?The previous owner took it to Apple store, and they couldn't find anything wrong with the hardware. This is really annoying. I changed everything to Apple products because I like the reliability, but now this happens :-(

Mar 30, 2015 6:19 AM in response to yinming

Hello "Morning", when you install SnowLeopard, (format your HDD completely into 1 Partition from the CD) you will not have a Recovery Partition because that comes only with Lion and later.

Before you do anything try this first:

completely switch off the mac, holde the CMD+R keys while you start it again: when your RecoveryPartition is still working it will start (slowly) in the Recovery Partition. Then choose DiskUtility and partition/format your HDD 1 Partition (forget about Windows). Then exit DiskUtility and choose Install OSX: this will then install the actual version of Yosemite (it seems you had that installed before the Windows disaster): you need to have a good internet connection because the OS will be downloaded (close to 5GB). If this all succeeds: you need Bootcamp to install a Windows Partition and to install Windows. If you have enough space on your harddisk instal a Virtualizer (Parallels, VMware, Virtualbox) and with that instal Windows.

When you do not succeed to use the RecoveryPartition:

You have to have the grey installation CD's, when you do not have them you could try to get them from Apple, you need to have the serialnumber of your Mac (see at the bottom). It will be Leopard I think, then format and install. Then upgrade to SnowLeopard (with a CD) then update to 10.6.8. From there you can go in one step to Yosemite (via Appstore in the Applications folder).

Lex

Mar 30, 2015 6:36 AM in response to Lexiepex

Good morning Lex. I tried the Command-R many times, but it will just ignore it completely and boot directly into Windows. I have VirtualBox on my MacBook Air, and it is rather slow, so I decided, foolishly apparently, to use Disc Utility, which didn't work because I only have Windows XP, which is not supported. So I installed from XP cd when booting up the computer, which reformatted part of the hard drive, erased my Machitosh HD and Recovery HD. I guess I will have to figure out a way to get the Snow Lepard.


Do I need the "grey installation CD" even before I can use Snow Leopard? I never had the CD with my MacBook Air... Or can Snow Leopard bootup the computer and install the OSX?


Thanks a lot! --Ming

erased macintosh hd and recovery hd

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