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I today performed a factory reset on my Early 2009 iMac by going into the recovery mode, erasing the disk (as per this video). I then quit the disk utility application and proceeded for a fresh install of OSX. When I tried doing so, the prompt asked for my apple id and password, which I did not want to give (since I was planning to give away this mac). Thus after referring to this link, I restarted the mac without doing a fresh install and tried to load the most recent compatible OS by pressing the Shift-Option-Command-R key combination.

The Mac did not boot up after restart and has been stuck on a blank white screen. I have tried holding the power button for 10 seconds and restarting, booting in safe mode, booting on verbose mode, holding the CMD+Shift+P+R combination but the mac still does not boot and is stuck on the blank white screen.

Thus, how can I get the mac to boot up?

bmike
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Shaurya
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    I'm afraid you were using instructions not applicable to such an old Mac. Internet recovery is not available on an '09, it started to appear in '10/11 models. You need to make a USB boot stick - see https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/309399/how-can-i-download-an-older-version-of-os-x-macos – Tetsujin Dec 31 '23 at 18:51

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You will need to bring a working OS to your Mac or bring it to another computer to wipe. There's likely not enough OS left internally and it won't boot from Internet Recovery.

Here's a very excellent write up of the preparation process for next time (once you've gotten it booted again or perform some of the steps from another computer like removing Activation Lock)

bmike
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  • Thanks for replying, I made a bootable usb of el capitan as per this answer: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/388508/451757. But on inserting the usb and holding down the option key while starting the machine. The mac still has a white screen. Any fixes for this? – Shaurya Dec 31 '23 at 20:27
  • If you reset NVRAM one time - what shows on the screen when you hold option and start it up? @Shaurya (if it’s always white, you have a coincidental hardware failure unrelated to the OS things you’ve done.) – bmike Dec 31 '23 at 21:48