EVERYTHING LOST!!!

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EVERYTHING LOST!!!

First off it’s a 2019 imac with macOS Catalina 10.15.7

I was deleting my things getting ready to sell my iMac. Held command + R and got into disk utility. Went into “Macintosh HD” and erased that. Then I went into “Macintosh HD - Data” and erased that as well. That’s when things went wrong. My iMac kicked into “starting internet recovery”. Finished that and I was back into macOS Utilities. Attempted to “Reinstall macOS”. That was 24 hours. Finished that and I was back into macOS Utilities. I then manually shut down computer and attempted to start up. iMac did not start up and showed a blinking folder with a question mark inside. Then I manually turned iMac off and attempted to get back into macOS Utilities. It instead went to a screen asking for wifi connection and password. From there it went into “Starting internet recovery” and now I’m back into macOS Utilities.

If someone has experienced this or has knowledge on how to help, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 18, 2023 4:22 PM

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Answer 1

Miche11e_P

Community Specialist

Jan 20, 2023 3:53 PM in response to spartan0197

Hi spartan0197,

Thanks for contacting Apple Support Communities!

We understand that you erased your Mac and attempted to reinstall macOS but your Mac started to a folder with a question mark.

The folder with the question mark indicates that your Mac is unable to locate the system software and can't boot up completely.

You can run First Aid on the disk, repair any errors then reinstall macOS as outlined here: If your Mac starts up to a question mark - Apple Support

"If the question mark is persistent, and your Mac does not start up normally:

Press and hold the power button on your Mac for up to 10 seconds, until your Mac turns off.
Every Mac has a power button. On notebook computers that have Touch ID, press and hold Touch ID.
Use Disk Utility to repair your startup disk. Follow the steps for a Mac with an Intel processor.
If Disk Utility found no errors or repaired all errors, reinstall macOS.
If you still need help, please contact Apple Support."

Take care!

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EVERYTHING LOST!!!

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