[SOLVED] Reload Mac OS X Software without DVD

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Herc08

Herc08

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So, I have to replace the hard drive in an iMac LAte 2009 21.5". There is an issue. I do not have another Mac to use DiskMakerX or Firewire. The old drive does not even have the recovery partition anymore. I was wondering, is there a Windows tool, or something that will allow me to install the OS X software needed? I believe it is 10.6 (according to the Apple timeline).

Thanks in advance.
 
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SchizTech
You could, though it'd be simpler to use a flash drive. To use that HDD you'd need to create a second partition first or lose any other information by formatting over it just to use a fraction of a percent of it's total capacity.
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SchizTech

SchizTech

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I don't know of any way to do it within Windows directly. One option I can think of is to load Mac OS within a virtual machine on that Windows PC to create a flash drive from a downloaded image.

Q: do you have the image ready?
Q: are you sure you want that older version of OS X? That Mac should be able to run the most recent (Mac OS Sierra), so long as you have at least 2GB of RAM in there
 
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Herc08

Herc08

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If I could get it to Sierra, that would be good. Again, not that familiar with Macs. Does Apple offer evaluation software? Don't know any other way to get the software or image ready

 
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SchizTech

SchizTech

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The official way to get the latest Mac OS is from the Mac App store/Itunes on a mac. Only the latest version of OSX is downloadable this way, no older versions even on Macs that don't support the latest version but can be upgraded from what they have now to some other more recent version. Can you borrow another mac from a friend to use for that purpose? You'd just need an 8GB flash drive. The App store would download the installer to the Applications folder on the mac, where Disk Maker X can see it.

(not all new features of Sierra would work on older macs)
 
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Herc08

Herc08

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I can try and get a MAC book pro. Would I be able to use a 1TB usb external hard drive instead of a flash drive?
 
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Herc08

Herc08

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OK then, I will make a 16gb partition just be on the safe side. Does it need to be ext3 or ext4 format?
 
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Herc08

Herc08

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Ah ok, I'll create the partition and let the MacBook pro format it. Appreciate the help. Last thing, to download the software on the Mac book, would we have to purchase that?
 
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Herc08

Herc08

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Thanks for your help. I will report back if everythingworked properly.
 
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Herc08

Herc08

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Well just want to update. I was able to replace the hard drive with ease. In fact, I went ahead got the ifix it repair bag. One thing, the thermal sensor is dependent on the hard drive. The imac had a Seagate, but if you click on buy parts, it will ship a WD. If I known that, I would have went on amazon and got it for $40. To prevent the fans from running at full speed, I had to grab this https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIDIMACHDD09/ and put it on the hard drive. I still did not have another machine. But a friend made me a dMG file of Yosemite. He threw it on Google Drive and I was able to put it on a 16gb thumb drive with Trans Mac on Windows. Installation took 20mins. Now there is life again. Waiting on the sata/usb cable to try and get data off the drive. Thanks again for all the help.

 
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