How do I install macOS Sierra on a blank hard drive?

[BenchFox]

I've recently got my hands on a unibody iMac from 2010. It already had Sierra installed on it, but the hard drive was partitioned frankly stupidly. The hard drive had a capacity of 1TB, but only about 17GB was usable as the boot partition. That partition couldn't be edited in any useful way, so I tried to format it using the command prompt on a Windows 10 install disk on my desktop.

I'd tried to make a bootable USB of Sierra using TransMac (I don't have another Mac computer) but I can't see it on the startup options menu. I also can't see my hard drive (it's entirely possible it didn't format as exFAT).

How do I get macOS installed with a USB on a blank hard drive?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

I have heard a lot of folks having trouble with TransMac created bootable macOS installer flash drives. You cannot see the HD since it either was formatted incorrectly for macOS, is blank and not formatted, and you cannot startup from the installer drive you made.

You could try starting up from the Recovery partition if it still exists:

Start up your Intel-based Mac in macOS Recovery​

1. Restart your Mac.
2. Immediately press and hold one of the following key combinations until you see the startup screen:
   • Command-R: Start up from the built-in macOS Recovery System. Use this key combination to reinstall the latest macOS that was installed on your system, or to use the other apps in macOS Recovery.
   • Option-Command-R: Start up from macOS Recovery over the internet. Use this key combination to reinstall macOS and upgrade to the latest version of macOS that’s compatible with your Mac.
   • Option-Shift-Command-R: Start up from macOS Recovery over the internet. Use this key combination to reinstall the version of macOS that came with your Mac or the closest version that’s still available.
3. If you see a lock, enter the password for your Mac.
4. If you have multiple volumes on your disk, select the volume you want to recover, then click Next.
5. If requested, choose an administrator account, click Next, enter the password for the account, then click Continue.
   When the Recovery app appears in the menu bar, you can choose any of the available options in the window or the menu bar.

You could also try recreating the installer with TransMac - maybe a formatting/setting issue when it was created the first time. Also, an Apple Store can install macOS for you, or create a bootable installer with a friend's Mac if that is available: Create a bootable installer for macOS

Hope that helps,

C

 

[BenchFox]

Hello,

thank you for your reply. However, I managed to fix it already this morning. Apparently, the issue was that TransMac didn't create a working bootable USB. I used gibMacOS and managed to get the macOS Utilities. Then it was just a matter of deleting and repartitioning the hard drive and installing High Sierra. And now my iMac works!

Cheers

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hi,

Excellent - glad you found a solution and are up and running.

Enjoy and be well.

C