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Problem description: My father complained that his 2010 iMac (27") was running slow and asked me if I could do a fresh install of the OS for him to get the system like new again. After wiping the hard drive, every attempt at reinstalling the OS has failed. Attempted fixes:The Computer was up-to-date and running OS Sierra prior to using disk utility to wipe the hard drive ready for a fresh install. Because the computer was so old and the original discs that came with it were no longer around, I used a guide to create a bootable USB install drive, which I found here. Everything was going well until eventually the fresh install of Sierra froze. I decided to leave it throughout the night but it was still stuck and checking the log revealed some errors (I should have written these down, I don't recall what they were off the top of my head). Because this failed and I had no copy of OS X to install off disc, I went back into disk utility, wiped the hard drive again and then performed first aid to check it was okay, which came back fine with no errors. I then tried internet recovery which also got stuck with only six seconds remaining, again for an incredibly long time. At this point I thought my best bet would be to order a DVD copy of OS X from Apple and do it that way, and got a copy of Snow Leopard. While waiting for that to arrive however, my father grew impatient and called Apple tech support. I'm surprised they helped him given the age of the computer but he informed me that nothing they did worked and he'd given up, so was waiting for me to get the disc. When the disc arrived and I put it into the computer, I noticed that when holding down the Option key during startup, the main hard drive was no longer visible from the boot menu, although the small 2GB~ partition (that I assume runs disk utility etc.) still was, as well as the inserted OS X Snow Leopard disc. I thought that this was unusual but went ahead and tried to install Snow Leopard anyways, and it froze. I quizzed my father on what the support guy made him do to make the main drive disappear from the boot menu options since I assumed installation failed because it wasn't detecting the hard drive any more, but he had no idea what he'd done, so I'm clueless as to what's caused that. I can still access disk utility however, and the main hard drive is still visible there. I've performed first aid again to check for anything being wrong with it such as failures or errors and it always comes back as being perfectly fine, but for whatever reason it's now not showing up in the boot menu. I've no idea what to do at this point since Apple considers the product too old to repair so I can't take it to a nearby store, and there's only one local independent repair store who also refuses to try and fix it because it's too old. I first assumed that the hard drive was dead because of installation issues with the OS, but disk utility repeatedly states it's fine, so I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions? Recent changes: Only what's mentioned above. I have no idea what the tech support guy told my father to do to make the main drive vanish from the boot menu, though. Operating system: OS Sierra. Also tried a disc copy of OS X Snow Leopard. System Specs: Not sure of exact specs, but it's a 27" iMac from 2010 with an i3 processor and 4GB of memory. The hard drive is a 1TB mechanical drive. Location: England. I have Googled and read the FAQ: Yes.
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Feb 19, 2017 11:56
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 14:25 |
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My first instinct is to assume the HDD is going and Disk Utility is simply not sensitive to notice it. I'd suggest checking the memory (pretty sure you should be able to make a bootable disk with memtest86 on it that your Mac can boot) and checking the HDD with a more robust tool (or just trying the install on a different HDD entirely).
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Feb 19, 2017 23:03
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iMacs of that era are under a hard drive recall, more than likely. I would check your model and see if you had one of those; it'll at least give you more of an idea. Also try resetting the P-RAM; google for instructions for your model.
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Feb 24, 2017 15:01
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