HDD failure and new install

Question

HDD failure and new install

27" iMac 2009, 1 TB Seagate drive.

My mac is long out of warranty and the other day my child pulled the power cord from the wall and now the computer won't boot at all. I can't even get into safe mode (hold shift), internet restore (opt, cmd, r), or restore (cmd, r). When I first hit the power button I hear a clicking noise similar to a clock ticking coming from the HDD. The clicking lasts 10 sec then it goes away, all the while my screen is white and unresponsive, and finally I get the flashing ? file.

I'm going to replace the HDD so my question are these:

- How do I get a bootable OS disk or flash drive without another mac in the house?

- Once I get the new HD running with OS X, can I just pull from my time machine to restore all the settings/programs?

- Will I have an issue with authentication of the system? IE - will Apple think it's an invalid machine or something and not allow me to get to all my movies, music, or time machine?

Lots of unknowns before I attempt this fix. Please help!

Posted on Dec 13, 2017 10:36 AM

Reply

Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,562 points

Dec 13, 2017 10:53 AM in response to X_Caliber_9mm

X_

I'm going to replace the HDD so my question are these:

- How do I get a bootable OS disk or flash drive without another mac in the house?

- Once I get the new HD running with OS X, can I just pull from my time machine to restore all the settings/programs?

- Will I have an issue with authentication of the system? IE - will Apple think it's an invalid machine or something and not allow me to get to all my movies, music, or time machine?

Lots of unknowns before I attempt this fix. Please help!

You will need a Snow Leopard DVD and have to boot from that and then upgrade. You can still get the DVD from Apple for $20 from their online store. Here is the link Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple

No Apple won' t think it's an invalid machine. However you don't make ANY mention of having a Time Machine backup, do you have one??

My recommendation would be to take the computer to a third party AASP, someone that is trained and can help you get back up and running. However considering the age of the computer (8+ years), you may want to consider replacing the iMac with a more up-to-date model. If finance is a concern then consider an Apple refurbished model, this come with no downside as they have the same warranty as new, can save hundreds or dollars, are identical to a new machine and much faster than your old machine. If you are not aware of these, start looking at Refurbished Mac - Apple. If you don't see anything you like, check often as they update the site daily with new inventory.

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 18, 2017 4:22 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Thanks for the response.

Seems my computer is dead...D. E. A. D.

I did have a snow leopard disc and I do have time machine, but I don't think they are going to help me at this point.

Update: I installed the new HDD and attempted to boot with the snow leo disc but couldn't get past the white screen issue and none of the boot commands seem to be working. I took the mac to the apple store and they had the same issue. They think that whatever controls the boot sequence is messed up and there's nothing they can do with it.

I did buy a new mac...while cursing. Hopefully I can pull my files over from time machine.

Now what to do with the old mac? It's a little large for a paper weight!

Reply