Q: Can't start boot recovery on iMac
Greetings!
I have some issues on my iMac 27' (late 2009). Issues started when I've decided to delete OS X El Capitan and install factory OS X Lion from Recovery partition. My actions:
- restarted iMac
- pressed Command + Option + R
- selected Disk Utility
- successfully erased 2 partitions with OS X Extended format. Failed to merge these partitions to one whole disk. Maybe unmounted these partitions (not sure).
- restarted iMac
Note: I have Recovery partition and Clover EFI boot loader.
As result I see EFI loader with some options and "Boot Recovery from Recovery HD" option which doesn't work. If I choose this option the black screen appears and after 3-5 min iMac is going to restart. Command + R doesn't working anymore (neither Command + Option + R).
Please help me to solve this issue. How can I to install factory OS now?
iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)
Posted on Sep 9, 2016 7:17 PM
Problem: You deleted the Recovery Partition, and that Mac is too old to use OS X Internet Recovery.
Solution: Load an operating system from disc.
- Boot from its original, grey, System Install DVD. If you no longer have it, purchase a retail Snow Leopard Install DVD: OS X Snow Leopard - Apple Support.
- Install Snow Leopard.
- Then, run Software Update to update OS X to the latest Snow Leopard release (OS X version 10.6.8).
- That will provide the Mac App Store, from which you can re-download El Capitan at no additional fee.
- Then, install El Capitan, which will re-create the deleted Recovery Partition.
Posted on Sep 10, 2016 5:47 AM