firmware upgrade with a boot USB ?

[MaggieMayNot]

My iMac is an A1311, mid-2010 without Internet Recovery capability. I have read that it can take EFI firmware update 2015002.

At the moment, my only HD is empty (erased).
I can only boot from a USB stick, or maybe a DVD.
Both El Capitan and High Sierra have failed with "An error has occurred while preparing the installation".

Catch-22: can't install an OS without Internet Recovery -- can't use Internet Recovery without new firmware -- can't install new firmware without an OS.

What to do?

 

[Just_Me_D]

Do you have a dvd containing the original OS X version? If so, can you install from it?

Do you have a time machine backup to restore from?

To be able to install one of the updates found via the following link, you’re going to at least need an original disk or something recognizable to the update.

https://support.apple.com/en_US/downloads/macos

 

[MaggieMayNot]

This machine was, at one time, protected by DeepFreeze, then the owner lost the password. A Time Machine backup would have been useless because it would retain the DF utility.

No, we do not have a boot DVD. I don't even know what OS was on this machine originally. Can I download one somewhere?

I do have boot USB for High Sierra and another boot USB for El Capitan. These are supposed to perform a Clean Install, but they fail.

I need a workaround. Many people have suffered this problem. What did they do?

 

[Just_Me_D]

Deep Freeze? That's typically used by businesses. Hmmm!

 

[MaggieMayNot]

Anybody? Bueller?

If I take this thing to the Genius Store, what are those geniuses going to do with it?

 

[MaggieMayNot]

@Just_Me_D

that is true. and irrelevant. it was running in a semi-public Business Center. I'm not sure what the "Hmmmm" is all about.

Do you have any ideas that might help?

 

[Just_Me_D]

@Just_Me_D

that is true. and irrelevant. it was running in a semi-public Business Center. I'm not sure what the "Hmmmm" is all about.

Do you have any ideas that might help?

It is not irrelevant. Did the "Business Center" manage the device via an MDM solution? Was the use of Deep Freeze a method of protection as well as an option to easily recover data on its devices? The reason I ask is that the device may need to return to the "Business Center" to be restored, especially *If* it was erased while in a protected or semi-protected state.

 

[MaggieMayNot]

Did the "Business Center" manage the device via an MDM solution? Was the use of Deep Freeze a method of protection as well as an option to easily recover data on its devices?

I don't know what an "MDM solution" is. But, I can tell you that there was no server or elaborate management taking place at that Business Center. The iMac was "frozen" only to prevent tampering and corruption by the users.

Of course the HD was erased while the system was in a frozen state. That's the whole point. When management loses the password, there is only one remedy.

Do you think that somehow a piece of DF could have survived a drive erase by Disk Utility? If that is true, we need a new Disk Utility. I ran it against the entire drive, not just the boot volume.

By the way, there were two identical iMacs in that Business Center. This procedure worked nicely on the first one. I still haven't figured out what is different with this one.

The people at the Genius Bar want me to believe the HD is faulty. Anything is possible, I suppose, but this machine was fine (frozen), before I wiped it. And, it passed all of Apple's hardware diagnostics.