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Apple iMac 21.5 (A1311) - Hard drive replacement

Hello.

The hard drive in this unit was not working properly. I had a hard drive that I pulled from a windows machine and put it in the mac. The mac now boots into windows (not my intention :)) but doesn't recognize my wired keyboard so I cannot do anything (it does recognize the wired keyboard during the boot process).

I am unable to get this unit to boot to CD or other with the mac wireless keyboard nor the wired windows keyboard.

Any suggestions on how to get it to boot from CD (besides the usual methods) so I can reformat the drive and install the Mac OS from CD/DVD?

Thanks.

☠ MASQ ☠

Press and hold "C" key down when powering up to enable the CD drive for booting from the MacOSX disk
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201255
That's unaffected by booting into Windows as it is actioned ahead of the HDD boot.

(You might also think about wiping the HDD in a windows machine and deleting any partitons ready for the MacOSX install)

SOLUTION

Adam D

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ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Adam D

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☠ MASQ ☠

Might be worth finding another keyboard
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/28311458/Can't-reinstall-Mac-OS-X.html

☠ MASQ ☠

Looks like my last cross-posted with your closure request :)

Adam D

ASKER

Thanks MASQ. I attempted to give you an "assisted" solution but I must have clicked on mine and it doesn't look like I can undo it. I appreciate the quick response. :)

☠ MASQ ☠

Do you want it reopened?

serialband

To select your boot media, Hold the Allt or Option key during boot.

Adam D

ASKER

The "C" option was a "usual method" and the "usual methods" were not working. It appears to be a dead CD drive as well on this unit so the answer given was not what I requested.