You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Hello, I have erased my disk and reinstalling OS X on my iMac. When I get to the “Select Disk where you want to install OS X, I am not seeing any options. Can anyone assist here?

Hello, I have erased my disk and reinstalling OS X on my iMac. When I get to the “Select Disk where you want to install OS X, I am not seeing any options. Can anyone assist here?

Posted on Sep 24, 2019 9:03 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 24, 2019 6:25 PM

Maybe....see if you can get into Disk Utility from the Mountain Lion Installer. You may have to move the mouse to the top center of the screen and OS X Tools should show up. Maybe that's a Sierra/High Sierra thing. Quit the installer. You should still be able to get into Disk Utility, should be at the top of the screen.....going from memory here....choose your disk on the left hand side. If it doesn't show up, make sure that "Show all disks" is checked off. and click on the button on the top left. You have erased it, which is Ok. But you need to format it as well, MacOS Journaled (Extended), and GUID on. Give it a name, and then choose erase again. This should create a partition on your hard drive (You only need 1 usually), and from there, you can quit Disk Utility and try again to install Mountain Lion


hope this helps a bit

John B

6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 24, 2019 6:25 PM in response to ncberment

Maybe....see if you can get into Disk Utility from the Mountain Lion Installer. You may have to move the mouse to the top center of the screen and OS X Tools should show up. Maybe that's a Sierra/High Sierra thing. Quit the installer. You should still be able to get into Disk Utility, should be at the top of the screen.....going from memory here....choose your disk on the left hand side. If it doesn't show up, make sure that "Show all disks" is checked off. and click on the button on the top left. You have erased it, which is Ok. But you need to format it as well, MacOS Journaled (Extended), and GUID on. Give it a name, and then choose erase again. This should create a partition on your hard drive (You only need 1 usually), and from there, you can quit Disk Utility and try again to install Mountain Lion


hope this helps a bit

John B

Sep 25, 2019 6:32 AM in response to HWTech

I backed up the iMac and erased it so I can use it as a new computer. But I think I am missing a step. No drives are showing up when I go through the steps for reinstalling OS X. When I choose that, I have to agree to apple terms. After that, it says select the drive but I don’t see it. Then I tried Disk Utility to repair disk. There are 4 options: First Aid, Erase, Partition, Raid and Restore. When I chose Restore - I see two options: 1 TB Apple HDD (the original drive) and a second option: MAC OS X Base System (1.19gb). I am not sure which should be the source and which should be the destination Or if I should even be at this point.

Sep 24, 2019 6:29 PM in response to ncberment

How did you erase the drive? Which version of macOS was used to erase the drive?


You need to use Disk Utility on the Mountain Lion installer to erase the whole drive as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled). This will erase all data from the drive. If the drive was erased with a newer version of macOS, then it may not be readable with the older Mountain Lion.



Sep 25, 2019 6:58 AM in response to Johnb-one

John, I just tried this:


“But you need to format it as well, MacOS Journaled (Extended), and GUID on. Give it a name, and then choose erase again. This should create a partition on your hard drive (You only need 1 usually), and from there, you can quit Disk Utility and try again to install Mountain Lion” and now it’s installing. Ironically I named the drive Macintosh HD. I hope this resolved the issue. Thank you very much for your guidance.

Sep 25, 2019 9:10 AM in response to ncberment

You want to select 1TB Apple HD in the left pane of Disk Utility.


I forget how Disk Utility works on Mountain Lion. I think it is best if you click on the Partition tab and select "1 Partition" from the drop down list. Make sure the file system is MacOS Extended (Journaled). Name the drive if you want, otherwise it will default to "Untitled". Then click Apply. Once the partition is created, you should see a volume such as "Untitled" (or whatever you named it) just beneath the "1TB Apple HD". Also double check the "Partition Map Scheme" is "GUID Partition Table". If you have this, then you should be able to quit Disk Utility and run the OSX installer.

Hello, I have erased my disk and reinstalling OS X on my iMac. When I get to the “Select Disk where you want to install OS X, I am not seeing any options. Can anyone assist here?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.