Replaced hard drive in my mac desk top. Will not boot. tried original disk nothing. Only get a flashing question mark. Tried rebooting with option key got pad lock and empty white box. I have used every short cut key I know.
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Sounds like you need to first find a friend with a Mac, offer him a good bottle or two of wine when you visit ;-}
What you want to do here is bring a USB thumb drive with you (16GB or better). Using your friends Mac, format the USB drive so it has a GUID partition map and Mac OS Extended (Journaled) formatted partition using Disk Utility. Once done, download from the Apple Store the OS installer (Mavericks or Yosemite). Make a backup copy before running it, then run it to install the OS onto your USB thumb drive. Once done, reboot the system holding the Option key you should see your thumb drive select it to make sure it works. if it boots up your friends system you know you're good to go. But, you'll still need to copy over to your thumb drive a copy of the OS installer. Lastly, don't forget to finish the wine ;-}
OK, with your USB installer ready to go you still need to boot up under it as you did with your friends Mac holding the Option key. Hopefully you still have the original HD installed in your system as we first want to get it working (the one with the blinking question mark) Using Disk Utility on your USB drive see if you can see the other drive. If you do try repairing the permissions and the disk its self. Let us know how it goes. If it still fails try reformatting it and installing a fresh copy of the OS on it.
If the drive has a padlock symbol when it boots up that implies its encrypted. Your only hope here is to reformat it and install a fresh copy of the OS. But, you'll need to get a SATA to USB adapter to prep this drive as you need to plug it in after your system is booted up.
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10 Comments
Were you getting the pad lock before you changed the hard drive? Why are you changing the hard drive?
by mayer
Dan, thanks for the response but I am unable to do anything. Cant format or even read the hard drive.
Mayer, thanks for the response, did not have question mar until I replace the hard drive, replace hard drive because I was getting message of unable to read files reboot computer.
by Robert
Please give us the last four figures of your serial number, located on the bottom of your stand.
by mayer
Serial Number QP83202YZE3
by Robert
iMac 20" 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo (Early 2008)
by Dan
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