I'm trying to wipe and reformat an old iMac 11,3 running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 so I can donate it. The challenge is that this model doesn't have a recovery partition. I attempted to use Disk Utility to create a bootable flash drive from a Snow Leopard ISO, but the iMac freezes at the Apple logo when I try to boot from it. I have access to a modern Windows computer and a MacBook, or I can work directly on the iMac. I also have CD-Rs, but I don't have a Dual Layer DVD-R to burn the large ISO file. I'm wondering if there are any specific USB settings I need to configure before creating the bootable drive. I'm unsure how useful this old computer would be for someone else, but it has a 1TB HDD. I just want to make sure all user data is cleared out before I pass it on.
1 Answer
Your iMac model actually supports Internet Recovery, but unfortunately, Apple doesn't host macOS High Sierra for installation anymore. It would help to know what version the MacBook originally came with. If it shipped with 10.14 or later, you won't be able to create an installer using that system. You might try just booting the iMac into Internet Recovery to see if that works for you.
Thanks, that's super helpful! I'm not sure what it originally shipped with, but I’ll check on Internet Recovery first. If that doesn't pan out, I’ll try getting 10.13 from Archive.org.