I just put a new SSD in my late 2009 iMac 27". Created bootable startup for High Sierra and installed.

Question

I just put a new SSD in my late 2009 iMac 27". Created bootable startup for High Sierra and installed.

I just put a new SSD in my late 2009 iMac 27". Created bootable startup for High Sierra and installed on mac. Trying to restore with Time Machine and was asked to erase disk, had to use disk utility now the mac shows the bottom of a mouse and won't reboot. I had successfully used command R a couple times but now that doesn't work. If I can get the iMac to reboot I will just use the migration assistant with my MacBook pro. Any ideas on how to get the make to see the USB startup volume?

iMac, macOS 10.12

Posted on Dec 9, 2019 8:58 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

MotorcycleJohn Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 10, 2019 7:45 PM in response to grizzly marmot

I tried the off and on and nothing. What I did was pressed the space bar and the install window popped up, from there I needed to run and get a wired mouse because I was not able to select continue with the keyboard (wired). With the wired mouse I am installing .... before I press "This solved my question" I will wait and see if it completes.

Thanks Grizz

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 10, 2019 7:24 PM in response to grizzly marmot

The screen displays the underside of my apple mouse showing an arrow next to the on button as if telling me to turn on the mouse. I used Option and was able to see the new SSD and the install volume and selected to install drive and it does the same thing. Here are the images that toggle instead of starting.

Once I select the startup drive the Apple and progress bar appear, the bar gets 3/4 of the way then the apple and bar blink, then progress a little more then jump back to the beginning, progress fast then this is what I see

Reply

Answer 3

Dec 10, 2019 4:39 AM in response to rkaufmann87

OWC Mercury Electra 3G SSD 7MM that was formatted for the mac. I was able to install High Sierra and it booted fine. Time Machine was not letting me select my latest backup so I rebooted using command R and selected restore from time machine. It then asked to erase the HD to continue and I when I selected ok another window popped up and said try another drive or use disk utility to erase which I did and it only allowed to format into AF**, not sure of the exact for letters. I was able to start using command R, retired the time machine getting the same messages. When that didn't work the second time I was going to reinstall High sierra, since it was one of the options, but now I can't get back to that screen. When I turn on the machine I press command R, wait for the apple, see the bar showing progress, the bar gets almost all the way then starts over, quickly completes and the screen shows the bottom of the apple mouse indicating for me to turn it on and cycles to another image which looks like an external drive indicating to turn it on. It just continues to cycle between these to images and nothing I do has any effect.

Reply

Answer 4

rkaufmann87

Level 10

144,168 points

Dec 10, 2019 6:04 AM in response to MotorcycleJohn

Well it doesn't have an OS. on it, you will need to boot from a DVD with Mac OS on it unless you created a bootable clone prior to installing the SSD. If you don't have a DVD, E-Bay still sells the Snow Leopard DVDs. You will have to install Mac OS on it and then upgrade to 10.6.8 and then you can install High Sierra and upgrade to 10.13.6 and then you can restore from your Time Machine backup.

Reply

Answer 5

Dec 10, 2019 1:41 PM in response to MotorcycleJohn

A internal boot drive that is an SSD must be in the APFS file system for OS 10.13 or higher. It is possible that the drive was in the HFS+ format before you put it into the Mac. So now the system wants that file system on the internal SSD. But it sounds like something may have gotten corrupted in the transformation of the file system from HFS+ to APFS. If you can boot the iMac from an external drive and try to reformat the drive, that would be the first thing to try. I also think that a chat session with OWC could help if you have trouble with this step. There could be some trickiness with converting that particular drive to APFS.

The more drastic step would be to remove the SSD and then format it as APFS in an external exclosure and then restore the data from the iMac backup or a clone. And then try to boot the iMac from the external clone and then finally install the SSD.

Reply

Answer 6

Dec 10, 2019 6:03 PM in response to grizzly marmot

Thanks Grizzly,

When I erased the drive with disk utility, as directed by time machine, it only offered APFS. After it was erased the first time I was able to boot using command R and tried restoring from time machine again and the same error messages popped up. Now when I try to start and use command R, I get the window with the underside of a mouse.

What key combination should I try to boot from my external startup USB volume?

Reply

Answer 7

Dec 10, 2019 7:40 PM in response to MotorcycleJohn

Those are the screens that want to pair a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard with the Mac. Do you have wired, Bluetooth or non Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Wired might be easiest. But Apple Bluetooth should work if you turn them on and off.

Reply