My dad has an old Mac computer that was operating smoothly until I decided to erase it and give it to him because I find it to be a little too sluggish. When I tried to reinstall it, all I found were problems.
After more than seven hours, I was able to convince it to accept the High Sierra install, but it simply stays on this loading page and won’t move beyond the “calculating time remaining” message.
Am I attempting to download it to the incorrect location? Right now, all I have is the basic system. I see no alternative course of action.
You need to click on the Hitachi drive at the top of the sidebar and erase the whole drive. Then try to reinstall macOS.
Cameron said:
You need to click on the Hitachi drive at the top of the sidebar and erase the whole drive. Then try to reinstall macOS.
What does that do?
Right now I’m doing this:
Select Disk Utility, find the macOS Base System, and hit Erase at the top.
Now I will rename the drive to Macintosh HD and set these options: Format - APFS; GUID Partition Map for Scheme.
Hit Erase, then quit Disk Utility.
Choose Macintosh HD as the drive, then reinstall macOS.
Cameron said:
You need to click on the Hitachi drive at the top of the sidebar and erase the whole drive. Then try to reinstall macOS.
When I try to erase it says the erase process has failed.
Cameron said:
You need to click on the Hitachi drive at the top of the sidebar and erase the whole drive. Then try to reinstall macOS.
When I try to erase it says the erase process has failed.
Erasing the whole drive and all the partitions is the right way to do a full erase and reinstall. If that fails, it might mean your drive is having issues.
Orion said:
Cameron said:
You need to click on the Hitachi drive at the top of the sidebar and erase the whole drive. Then try to reinstall macOS.
When I try to erase it says the erase process has failed.
Erasing the whole drive and all the partitions is the right way to do a full erase and reinstall. If that fails, it might mean your drive is having issues.
Alright, now it says starting internet recovery when I restarted in regular recovery mode.
Orion said:
Cameron said:
You need to click on the Hitachi drive at the top of the sidebar and erase the whole drive. Then try to reinstall macOS.
When I try to erase it says the erase process has failed.
Erasing the whole drive and all the partitions is the right way to do a full erase and reinstall. If that fails, it might mean your drive is having issues.
It looks like it did an internet reset. Now it says ‘set up and install a new copy of Lion’ instead of High Sierra.
Cameron said:
Orion said:
Cameron said:
You need to click on the Hitachi drive at the top of the sidebar and erase the whole drive. Then try to reinstall macOS.
When I try to erase it says the erase process has failed.
Erasing the whole drive and all the partitions is the right way to do a full erase and reinstall. If that fails, it might mean your drive is having issues.
It looks like it did an internet reset. Now it says ‘set up and install a new copy of Lion’ instead of High Sierra.
That won’t work. Lion is really old, from 2011, way before High Sierra.
Try booting into Internet Recovery by holding ALT+CMD+R.
What iMac do you have? If it defaults to Lion, it’s probably from late 2011 to mid 2012.
Orion said:
Cameron said:
Orion said:
Cameron said:
You need to click on the Hitachi drive at the top of the sidebar and erase the whole drive. Then try to reinstall macOS.
When I try to erase it says the erase process has failed.
Erasing the whole drive and all the partitions is the right way to do a full erase and reinstall. If that fails, it might mean your drive is having issues.
It looks like it did an internet reset. Now it says ‘set up and install a new copy of Lion’ instead of High Sierra.
That won’t work. Lion is really old, from 2011, way before High Sierra.
Try booting into Internet Recovery by holding ALT+CMD+R.
What iMac do you have? If it defaults to Lion, it’s probably from late 2011 to mid 2012.
I think it’s a 2012. What should I do next if it’s going back to Lion?
Orion said:
Cameron said:
Orion said:
Cameron said:
You need to click on the Hitachi drive at the top of the sidebar and erase the whole drive. Then try to reinstall macOS.
When I try to erase it says the erase process has failed.
Erasing the whole drive and all the partitions is the right way to do a full erase and reinstall. If that fails, it might mean your drive is having issues.
It looks like it did an internet reset. Now it says ‘set up and install a new copy of Lion’ instead of High Sierra.
That won’t work. Lion is really old, from 2011, way before High Sierra.
Try booting into Internet Recovery by holding ALT+CMD+R.
What iMac do you have? If it defaults to Lion, it’s probably from late 2011 to mid 2012.
When I try to download it, it just says ‘can’t download additional components needed to install Mac OS’
Orion said:
Hayden said:
Orion said:
Cameron said:
Orion said:
Cameron said:
You need to click on the Hitachi drive at the top of the sidebar and erase the whole drive. Then try to reinstall macOS.
When I try to erase it says the erase process has failed.
Erasing the whole drive and all the partitions is the right way to do a full erase and reinstall. If that fails, it might mean your drive is having issues.
It looks like it did an internet reset. Now it says ‘set up and install a new copy of Lion’ instead of High Sierra.
That won’t work. Lion is really old, from 2011, way before High Sierra.
Try booting into Internet Recovery by holding ALT+CMD+R.
What iMac do you have? If it defaults to Lion, it’s probably from late 2011 to mid 2012.
When I try to download it, it just says ‘can’t download additional components needed to install Mac OS’
Did you hold the command keys I mentioned earlier? It should show the last version that Mac supports.
Yes, and it still takes me to the Lion page.
Orion said:
Hayden said:
Orion said:
Hayden said:
Orion said:
Cameron said:
Orion said:
Cameron said:
You need to click on the Hitachi drive at the top of the sidebar and erase the whole drive. Then try to reinstall macOS.
When I try to erase it says the erase process has failed.
Erasing the whole drive and all the partitions is the right way to do a full erase and reinstall. If that fails, it might mean your drive is having issues.
It looks like it did an internet reset. Now it says ‘set up and install a new copy of Lion’ instead of High Sierra.
That won’t work. Lion is really old, from 2011, way before High Sierra.
Try booting into Internet Recovery by holding ALT+CMD+R.
What iMac do you have? If it defaults to Lion, it’s probably from late 2011 to mid 2012.
When I try to download it, it just says ‘can’t download additional components needed to install Mac OS’
Did you hold the command keys I mentioned earlier? It should show the last version that Mac supports.
Yes, and it still takes me to the Lion page.
That’s strange. Try the other command Shift-CMD-R and see if anything changes. An easy fix would be to create a bootable installer on a USB drive from another Mac.
A 2012 iMac can install up to 10.15 Catalina.
If it’s actually a 2011, it will only go up to whatever you had before 10.13 High Sierra.
I might try that since I’m at work now. I have a newer Mac here. Can you link me to some info on how to do that? I really appreciate your help.
Hayden said:
Orion said:
Hayden said:
Orion said:
Hayden said:
Orion said:
Cameron said:
Orion said:
Cameron said:
You need to click on the Hitachi drive at the top of the sidebar and erase the whole drive. Then try to reinstall macOS.
When I try to erase it says the erase process has failed.
Erasing the whole drive and all the partitions is the right way to do a full erase and reinstall. If that fails, it might mean your drive is having issues.
It looks like it did an internet reset. Now it says ‘set up and install a new copy of Lion’ instead of High Sierra.
That won’t work. Lion is really old, from 2011, way before High Sierra.
Try booting into Internet Recovery by holding ALT+CMD+R.
What iMac do you have? If it defaults to Lion, it’s probably from late 2011 to mid 2012.
When I try to download it, it just says ‘can’t download additional components needed to install Mac OS’
Did you hold the command keys I mentioned earlier? It should show the last version that Mac supports.
Yes, and it still takes me to the Lion page.
That’s strange. Try the other command Shift-CMD-R and see if anything changes. An easy fix would be to create a bootable installer on a USB drive from another Mac.
A 2012 iMac can install up to 10.15 Catalina.
If it’s actually a 2011, it will only go up to whatever you had before 10.13 High Sierra.
I might try that since I’m at work now. I have a newer Mac here. Can you link me to some info on how to do that? I really appreciate your help.
I can help with that. Just give me a moment to find the best guide for you.