Reinstall and keep data - Catalina - does not offer hard disc to install on

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Level 1

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Reinstall and keep data - Catalina - does not offer hard disc to install on

iMac with Catalina gives reboot and then only this sign which means that important system files are missing. Would like to reinstall Catalina and preserving data. Cmd + R gives option to reinstall El Capitain and then offers disc to reinstall on. However if I choose this El Capitain option my mail et cetera will not be recognized(?) because the last installation was Catalina. So, rebooted with alt/option + cmd + R but then no disc to install on is offered! Was looking for solution on internet but in the meanwhile my iMac rebooted because of problems. Checked hard disc via OSX utility and everything seems okay.

Why is no disc for installing Catalina visible?

What can I do?

Can I reinstall El Capitain and not loose or damage data? And then upgrade to Catalina?

Have not a 'excellent' backup of my data because the OSX installation on this iMac was a bit buggy for some years now meaning for example that TimeMachine did not work with my backup disc. Have however a clone by CCC, is bootable but after some time after booting the clone my iMac rebooted again before I was able to start the process of placing back the clone on the hard disc. So, I prefer a reinstallation of Catalina and preserve my data, or shouldn't I?

Thank you in advance for any hints or solutions to solve this.

Regards,

B

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Aug 6, 2020 9:51 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Barney-15E

Level 10

116,746 points

Aug 6, 2020 10:44 AM in response to Bas vdH

If all you see is the device, the drive is corrupt. It has lost all of its formatting…and data. If you need to recover that data, then you need to stop trying to do anything with that drive and get some file recovery software or contact a file recovery company.

You can try formatting the device as APFS with a single Volume, then try to install Catalina on that, but that will permanently lose your data.

My guess is the drive is failing.

Do you still have a clone on an external drive?

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

116,746 points

Aug 6, 2020 10:03 AM in response to Bas vdH

When you first used Cmd-R that gave the option to install El Capitan, did you see a spinning globe instead of the Apple when it started up?

It sounds like the Recovery volume is not working and you are going into Internet Recovery. Since it can't determine the current OS, it is offering the OS that shipped on your Mac model.

However, Cmd-Opt-R should offer the most recent OS compatible with your Mac. Cmd-Shift-Opt-R is supposed to offer the OS that shipped on your Mac.

Try resetting NVRAM, first. Depending on which symbol you saw, that may recover the startup information.

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Answer 3

Bas vdH Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 6, 2020 10:38 AM in response to Barney-15E

Hi,

I thought that the first time I didn't see the spinning globe. But later on, I did. I had removed the internet cable the first time and put it back in after the first attempts.

Did reset NVRAM, and then booted again with Opt-Cmd-R. Presented spinning globe and (this time) option for Catalina but still no disc presented to choose from.

Removed internet cable, booted and then press Cmd-R and asks to choose network.

Booted again and press Opt-Cmd-R also asks for network.

In the disc utility program I only see the 'APPLE SSD SM0128G Media' visible and no hdd...

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