Bootable drive not working

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Aucklandjafa

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#232230 5-Apr-2018 20:03

Long story short: Went to upgrade my late '07 imac to Leopard to Snow Leopard so I can then download Sierra from the app store; anyway, the iMac wont accept it - half way through it'll shut down. I'm trying to use a bootable external drive with Sierra (made from another mac) and when I hold control on boot up and either select my external drive or the recovery drive I get a circle with a line through it. If there are any ideas to why it's not booting that'd be great - or if anyone has any data recovery methods that would be much appreciated.

RunningMan

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#1989039 5-Apr-2018 20:12

There was a firmware update for those if I recall correctly - these can often affect boot devices. Might pay to check if that is up to date.

Is Snow Leopard on DVD? Can you boot from that DVD and instal that way?

Behodar

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#1989042 5-Apr-2018 20:18

Sierra won't run on a 2007 iMac. It needs at least a "Late 2009" model.

Aucklandjafa

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#1989043 5-Apr-2018 20:19

RunningMan:

There was a firmware update for those if I recall correctly - these can often affect boot devices. Might pay to check if that is up to date.

Is Snow Leopard on DVD? Can you boot from that DVD and instal that way?

Yep, its a DVD but I can't boot from it - it'll get to half way and the machine switches off. I'm needing a bootable drive so I can transfer over the hard drive assuming it's working.

RunningMan

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#1989059 5-Apr-2018 20:47

Behodar:

Sierra won't run on a 2007 iMac. It needs at least a "Late 2009" model.

Hmm, quite right - I had El Cap & Sierra transposed!

10.11.6 (El Capitan) is the latest on an 07 imac.