iMac Experts? Help with Operating System Install Please

[Bonefish Blues]

One of our iMacs is getting on a bit (well a lot - it's a late 2009 model), and had been relegated to light browsing duties. It had a second hard disk failure, second and wasn't worth spending money on to get someone to install one, so in an act of minor YouTube-fuelled tinkering I've put a 500gb SSD in to try to prolong its useful life (and avoid spending £700 on a Mac Mini). I've done a competent job of this I think, the SSD's connected securely, and the display is fine.

The data on the hard disk is irrecoverable, but it's backed up on Time Machine. I expected to be able to use Command R to install High Sierra, which is the latest it can run, but it keeps coming up with the ? folder. What's my best way forward to get an Operating System installed? Could I just buy one of these for instance (The machine has an optical drive)?
https://www.softwarerepairworld.com/products/apple...

I don't want to throw good money after bad, but I'm not in for a great deal so far, and I'm reluctant to chuck in the towel when (I think) I'm so close. Appreciate any advice you can offer, thanks.

[Durzel]

A Mac that old won't have a recovery partition, so you'd have to boot off media.

Don't know why you'd have to pay £6.99 for High Sierra. If you've previously owned OSX then you get that version free.

You could download High Sierra ISO here, burn it to a DVD or USB stick, and go from there:
https://isoriver.com/download-your-file-now/?url=h...

Warning: I don't know the provenance of that download, but the ISO doesn't appear to be available on the App Store anymore.

[buggalugs]

You would normally cmd-r or cmd-opt-r to reinstall the o/s through internet recovery. With a new ssd you will need to create a partition first through disk utility.

Do the fans stay high at the moment? As I’ve had that issue on those vintage imacs. The old 500g drives had temp sensor connectors.

[Bonefish Blues]

buggalugs said:

You would normally cmd-r or cmd-opt-r to reinstall the o/s through internet recovery. With a new ssd you will need to create a partition first through disk utility.

Do the fans stay high at the moment? As I’ve had that issue on those vintage imacs. The old 500g drives had temp sensor connectors.

No, because the last disk replacement also installed a temp sensor attached to the top of the disk, so I took it off and patched it onto the new SSD. Gave everything a good clean-out too (it wasn't as dusty as I expected, so I assume it was also done when the last disk failed)

[cb31]

I'm not sure this is that helpful as I can't remember properly but anyway. Last time I had to do something like this a good few years ago I used a USB stick with some kind of bootloader on it, booted from that then the rest was done via internet download. Worth a google search

[Bikerjon]

Internet recovery wont work on a machine this old. You will need another Mac to download the 10.13 software and then create a bootable USB

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211683

[megaphone]

I'm running Catalina on my 2009 iMac, it's a work around patch but mine is running fine. This guy is well respected.

http://dosdude1.com/catalina/

[camel_landy]

Bikerjon said:

Internet recovery wont work on a machine this old. You will need another Mac to download the 10.13 software and then create a bootable USB

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211683

^^^ This is what I had to do for an old iMac I dropped an SSD into. Fortunately, I had plenty of other machines which I could create a bootable USB stick.

Good luck.

M

[Bonefish Blues]

camel_landy said:

Bikerjon said:

Internet recovery wont work on a machine this old. You will need another Mac to download the 10.13 software and then create a bootable USB

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211683

^^^ This is what I had to do for an old iMac I dropped an SSD into. Fortunately, I had plenty of other machines which I could create a bootable USB stick.

Good luck.

M

I'll have a bash at this and report back/cry for help as appropriate.

[buggalugs]

Bikerjon said:

Internet recovery wont work on a machine this old. You will need another Mac to download the 10.13 software and then create a bootable USB

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211683

You’re right the oldest I’ve done were 2010 and it seems they are the oldest to support internet recovery. So he will need to do the bootable usb thing on his 2009. I seem to remember that’s a bit of a ball ache.

[LunarOne]

Durzel said:

A Mac that old won't have a recovery partition, so you'd have to boot off media.

Why not? My everyday computer is an early 2008 Mac Pro (3,1) running OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan. It does have a recovery partition. I can't upgrade my OS unless I patch it. I actually tried it and the system ran too slowly, so I reverted to El Capitan and have been happy since.

Edited by LunarOne on Thursday 16th September 23:35

[steveatesh]

camel_landy said:

Bikerjon said:

Internet recovery wont work on a machine this old. You will need another Mac to download the 10.13 software and then create a bootable USB

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211683

^^^ This is what I had to do for an old iMac I dropped an SSD into. Fortunately, I had plenty of other machines which I could create a bootable USB stick.

Good luck.

M

My 2014 iMac got a check sum error after an update of affinity and I got in a right jam with it. Only way to recover it turned out to be to make a bootable usb drive and then boot from that at start up….. can’t recall exactly how I did it but it’s still running fine after a couple years.

[Bonefish Blues]

Bonefish Blues said:

camel_landy said:

Bikerjon said:

Internet recovery wont work on a machine this old. You will need another Mac to download the 10.13 software and then create a bootable USB

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211683

^^^ This is what I had to do for an old iMac I dropped an SSD into. Fortunately, I had plenty of other machines which I could create a bootable USB stick.

Good luck.

M

I'll have a bash at this and report back/cry for help as appropriate.

Hmmm. The link takes me to Apple Store, I click Get to download High Sierra and I get a message telling me it's not available - because I can't 'downgrade', only upgrade (or summat)?

How do I ask it nicely so it'll put it on my usb?

...or do I just spent a very few quid and get the DVD version of HS - because not worth faffing?

[LunarOne]

Bonefish Blues said:

Hmmm. The link takes me to Apple Store, I click Get to download High Sierra and I get a message telling me it's not available - because I can't 'downgrade', only upgrade (or summat)?

How do I ask it nicely so it'll put it on my usb?

...or do I just spent a very few quid and get the DVD version of HS - because not worth faffing?

If you can't download High Sierra from the App Store, you can use the DosDude High Sierra Patcher to download it and then make a bootable USB. https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/macos-high-sierra

[blackscooby]

LunarOne said:

Bonefish Blues said:

Hmmm. The link takes me to Apple Store, I click Get to download High Sierra and I get a message telling me it's not available - because I can't 'downgrade', only upgrade (or summat)?

How do I ask it nicely so it'll put it on my usb?

...or do I just spent a very few quid and get the DVD version of HS - because not worth faffing?

If you can't download High Sierra from the App Store, you can use the DosDude High Sierra Patcher to download it and then make a bootable USB. https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/macos-high-sierra

Do you still need an install image of High Sierra ?
I've got "Install macOS High Sierra" of 5.23Gb on a USB drive if you need me to upload it to some online space.

I kept the install files from
Catalina
High Sierra
Mojave

Just in case I had a problem.

Edited by blackscooby on Tuesday 21st September 16:27

[Bonefish Blues]

blackscooby said:

LunarOne said:

Bonefish Blues said:

Hmmm. The link takes me to Apple Store, I click Get to download High Sierra and I get a message telling me it's not available - because I can't 'downgrade', only upgrade (or summat)?

How do I ask it nicely so it'll put it on my usb?

...or do I just spent a very few quid and get the DVD version of HS - because not worth faffing?

If you can't download High Sierra from the App Store, you can use the DosDude High Sierra Patcher to download it and then make a bootable USB. https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/macos-high-sierra

Do you still need an install image of High Sierra ?
I've got "Install macOS High Sierra" of 5.23Gb on a USB drive if you need me to upload it to some online space.

I kept the install files from
Catalina
High Sierra
Mojave

Just in case I had a problem.

Edited by blackscooby on Tuesday 21st September 16:27

Thanks for that and your PM, really appreciated. I had a chat to an ex Mac engineer yesterday and as a result I've spent £6 on a disk, on the basis it's a plug and play solution, and also that it will partition the disk for me.

...whether that proves to be the case or not, who knows, but if not, I'll certainly take you up on your kind offer

Will keep the thread updated.

[Bonefish Blues]

Well the DVD load was entirely unsuccessful - first it wouldn't take it and kept ejecting, then success - sounds of disc being read, and read, and read and so on - but no load, nad nothing I could do would get it to release it from its grip. So off to The Man again to get him to get the Mac to disgorge it, and whilst there stick High Sierra on it.

All done, up and running very nicely. The Man (men are MacSimple in Oxford, incidentally, who I've found very good) Shame I got the DVD stuck as that pushed the cost up because they had to dismantle the drive to get it out, but never mind.