Cannot reinstall macOS X Mountain Lion after erase

Question

Cannot reinstall macOS X Mountain Lion after erase

I wanted to reset my iMac (Late 2012) today for a possible sale. After deleting "Macintosh HD" in Disk Utility, I mistakenly assumed that I did not need to reinstall the operating system in macOS Utility at this point, and turned off the machine. However, with a reboot, only the flashing icon of a question mark then appeared on a folder (image 1), whereupon another reboot with ⌘ + R took me to Internet Recovery. There I now fail to install the operating system. More precisely, I can not select a volume on which this should be installed (image 2). I have read on the Internet that in such a case the hard disk should be erased via the Disk Utility. However, this option does not present itself to me, although a scan of the volume does not find any errors (image 3). What can I do?

Thanks for any help!

iMac

Gepostet am 31. Aug. 2022 12:57

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Answer 1

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Mercutio

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31. Aug. 2022 13:38 als Antwort auf Marco-9

Hey Marco-9,

your late 2012 iMac should usually be able to install MacOS Catalina effortlessly.

To do this, you should first perform an NVRAM reset:

turn off the iMac, wait 15 seconds and then start it with the 4 keys "option cmd P R"

pressed and only release the keys when a second loud startup sound is heard after the first one, and immediately after that hold down the keys "option cmd R" until the Apple logo appears.

"option cmd R" will initiate the installation of the highest possible MacOS (--> MacOS Catalina 10.15.7) for your iMac via the Internet recovery.

If there should be any problems --> COM again 🍏

Cheers

Manfred

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Answer 2

31. Aug. 2022 17:27 als Antwort auf Mercutio

Hey Manfred

Thanks for your very quick and easy to understand help! In fact, with your guidance, I was able to get to the installation process of macOS Catalina. There I still couldn't select a volume to install, but back in Disk Utility, due to the newer design, I found the function to erase the volume. After that, the installation went in fact effortlesssly.

Thank you very much again!

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Answer 3

31. Aug. 2022 18:42 als Antwort auf Marco-9

My pleasure and thanks for your feedback 🙂

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