Question I can't get into recovery mode ?

[Muhamad-j1234]

Hi all,
I just bought a 2008 iMac. I don't have an Apple keyboard, so I'm using a Windows one. There's nothing on the hard drive at the moment, so theres the flashing folder icon with question mark. When I press the 'alt' key on my windows keyboard, theres a white screen and I can move the mouse. When i press any other combination nothing happens, and I see the folder thing.

Thanks

 

[Ralston18]

Clarify:

"there is nothing on the hard drive" - did the previous owner/seller wipe the drive so no OS?

And you need to install the applicable apple drivers for the keyboard make and model being used.

Update your post to include full iMac specs and include keyboard/mouse make and model information.

 

[Muhamad-j1234]

The hard drive has been wiped. Im using this keyboard and mouse set and I also tried a Magegee TS91.
I can't install drivers since I can't boot into anything.

 

[NedSmelly]

theres the flashing folder icon with question mark

Try Windows + R (Windows key does the same thing as Command/clover thing) to access recovery, if it's still there on the hard drive.

Otherwise you might need to reinstall MacOS from a CD/DVD. Most likely 10.5 Leopard or 10.6 Snow Leopard for 2008 era.

 

[Muhamad-j1234]

I did upgrade it to a 120gb ssd, i still have the original hard drive, so should i try to put that back in? just tested the original hdd and it works fine

 

[NedSmelly]

The recovery partition is on the original HDD, so that won't be there in a new SSD. You'll need to do a fresh installation on the SSD from a MacOS CD/DVD.

Edit: you could also try this with the original HDD. Direct download of MacOS is at this official link. Only goes as far back as 10.7 Lion though.

 

[Muhamad-j1234]

I just put the original hard drive back in, which has some version of macos, and it shows me the apple logo with a spinning thing underneath, then the spinning thing goes away and I just see an apple logo. Tried windows + r, but it just boots normally

 

[Muhamad-j1234]

i think the os was broken, i press alt (would be option) and i have boot options. i'll reinstall with a usb

 

[Muhamad-j1234]

I made a macos usb, and it is currently installing