Disc Locked after disk erase

[leachim]

Trying to reinstall High Sierra on an older Mac

 

Disc was erased in disc utility

 

 

How do I unlock the disc ?

 

Thanks

[3s-gtech]

Have a look at:

 

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/314099/disk-locked-macos-reinstall

[leachim]

Have a look at:

 

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/314099/disk-locked-macos-reinstall

 

 

Thanks

 

It suggested holding down the ALT key on restart, but sadly it went to the same screen again where it said disk was LOCKED

[3s-gtech]

How difficult is it to change the disk on this machine? iMacs are a real pain, Mac Minis and Macbooks less so.

[leachim]

How difficult is it to change the disk on this machine? iMacs are a real pain, Mac Minis and Macbooks less so.

 

Not easy

 

But I did slip in an empty SSD to see if it would boot into recovery mode, but all it came up with was a flashing "Question Mark"

[leachim]

Have a look at:

 

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/314099/disk-locked-macos-reinstall

 

 

PS, I am using a Windows keyboard with it

 

This has an ALT key

 

Although, I did read somewhere that the ALT key on a Windows keyboard could work the same as the OPTION key

 

??

[3s-gtech]

Ah. I’ve never had any luck using Windows keyboards to do any pre-boot stuff due to Alt/Option. I ended up with a worn, crabby Mac wired one for that job.

[leachim]

Thanks

 

It looks like there is one partition of 1Tb which is the disk capacity and is called the Recovery sector, so there is no space to install the OS

 

I looked at the above articles, but couldn't figure it too well...

 

 

Are there any commands in Terminal which could create a new partition ?

[3s-gtech]

You should be able to remove that partition. Click on the root disk in Disk Utility rather than the sub-partition.

[leachim]

You should be able to remove that partition. Click on the root disk in Disk Utility rather than the sub-partition.

 

 

OK

 

The Erase function is greyed out

 

It contains 1.5gb of data - would this not be the data that holds the utility programs etc for reinstalling ??

[3s-gtech]

It will still boot USB media even if the disk is 100% blank - that’s how you can make them work with a brand new SSD installed.

 

You won’t necessarily want to lose the recovery partition though, but you should be able to delete the locked partition from Disk Utility, then create a new one.

 

I’m having to remember a few bits here as I haven’t got a similar aged machine in front of me.

[leachim]

It will still boot USB media even if the disk is 100% blank - that’s how you can make them work with a brand new SSD installed.

 

You won’t necessarily want to lose the recovery partition though, but you should be able to delete the locked partition from Disk Utility, then create a new one.

 

I’m having to remember a few bits here as I haven’t got a similar aged machine in front of me.

 

 

Ah, I tried a blank SSD in place of the original hard drive and all I got on the screen was a blinking question mark on startup

 

The ssd wasn't formated and obviously didn't contain a recovery sector

 

Cant erase the partition on original HD in disk utility as ERASE is blanked out....

[ToyHeartsFan]

I don't know MAC OS but does it let you reduce the size of the partition ie if you change it from 1000 GB to 10 GB is the apply button still greyed out?

[3s-gtech]

You'd need the installer on a separate USB drive/DVD to put back onto the blank disk, then boot from that.