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iMac Intel 27" EMC 2309 (Late 2009, Core 2 Duo 3.06 or 3.33 GHz) ID iMac10,1, EMC 2374 (Late 2009, Core i5 2.66 GHz or Core i7 2.8 GHz) ID iMac11,1

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Need help installing an OS onto iMac

Hello all,

As title says, I need help installing on OS onto my iMac. I received this iMac with no hard drive inside as it was removed from the previous owner. I have recently purchased an SSD with a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter and a thermal sensor which now have been installed.

I have verified the display and everything works as normal. When booted up, it shows the flashing folder with a question mark, which means no OS. The problem is, my iMac is a late 2009 model which after looking up online means it isn't possible to boot up into internet recovery mode right?

With that being said, should I attempt to make a bootable OS from USB? or should I just buy a CD with Mac OS on it, if that's possible?

Thanks!

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You can create a bootable USB drive installer. The latest version of MacOS that this machine can run is 10.13 High Sierra, you can download the install image DMG file from the Internet Archive or other places.

If you have another Mac, it's a relatively straightforward process to make a bootable USB drive that can be used to install MacOS. Disk Utility can be used to format the flash drive as GUID partition table / GPT, then you can restore the DMG to the flash drive.

If you have a PC, the process is a little more involved, but still possible. See this guide to make a bootable USB from a DMG file on Windows.

There are some other ways to do this also, but these are the most straightforward.

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It’s better to get it from Apples servers, so you know it’s not messed with How to download and install macOS and you need to create a bootable drive from another Mac system following this Create a bootable installer for macOS

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@danj Good catch on the Apple link, I couldn't find a 10.13 High Sierra image that could be directly downloaded there, but they could install 10.12 Sierra (which is available) and update from there.

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@chrisgreen Okay, sounds like a plan! I'll update with any problems I may have during the process. Thanks for the all the info!

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I have an update!

I managed to make the bootable USB with the help of my MacBook Pro! I then plugged it into my iMac and was able to install high Sierra onto it. It installed just fine, I'm so happy that I was finally able to fix this iMac! Thanks for all the help you guys!

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@acharlesalmanza Awesome, glad its working!

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A Charles Almanza crwdns2934231:0crwdne2934231:0
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