Mac Mini Server - internet recovery?

[LostName]

I have a Mac Mini Server, not sure on the year but it doesn't have a CD drive so its mid 2011+. However the hard drive failed after it had a slight fall, as I was moving house I knocked it off the desk and ever since the drive has just made a clicking noise. Anyways I have accepted this and brought an SSD to replace the drive. The only problem the failed drive has the OS on it. So now when I boot I get the apple logo and a loading spinner but not much else. I knew I would have to reinstall OS X somehow so I thought of using the internet recovery mode. however the mac won't boot into that mode, it doesn't even try. I can get into single user mode and also see the verbose mode on boot. but nothing else. Any tips on what to do from this point? I am hoping to install Ubuntu.

[ChuckMaurice]

The better thing to do is downloading a macOS installation disk from the Mac App Store on another Mac and use Diskmaker X to create a bootable USB drive for installation. If you don't have another Mac it's way more complicated.

Installing Ubuntu should be easy if you create an USB drive from another computer (Mac or otherwise) and just boot on it. But it's better if you have macOS alongside Ubuntu for disk management.

 

What macOS version did you have before the hard drive failure?

[LostName]

I don't have another mac, so that method is out the window. I will try a Ubuntu usb boot drive, does it need formatting in certain way or will it work if I follow these steps?

[lieder1987]

hold down the option key when it boots, that should give you the option to restore via the interwebs.

[Sprawlie]

4 minutes ago, lieder1987 said:

hold down the option key when it boots, that should give you the option to restore via the interwebs.

I believe that to go straight into the internet recovery mode if you have nothing on the drive, you can hold

COMMAND+OPTION+R immediately on power on. That should take you directly to the internet recovery.

 

Note: Last time I did this, it installed the version of OSx that Shipped with my Mac. NOT THE MOST RECENT VERSION. You will still need to update. Hopefully Apple changed this since it's just a pain in the but.

 

 

[lieder1987]

4 minutes ago, Sprawlie said:

Note: Last time I did this, it installed the version of OSx that Shipped with my Mac. NOT THE MOST RECENT VERSION. You will still need to update. Hopefully Apple changed this since it's just a pain in the but.

I think that now it is whatever is the highest level of OSX assigned to your apple ID for the computer.

[Sprawlie]

2 minutes ago, lieder1987 said:

I think that now it is whatever is the highest level of OSX assigned to your apple ID for the computer.

Interesting. I'm going to give it a re-install tonight on my Mac and see if I can't get up to the most recent level.

 

Seriously need to think of SOMETHING to do with this 2011 Macbook Air. but only 2gb of RAM makes it a bit of a let down for modern use (Though it's still 100% usable). Unfortunately, the screen is broken, so it's useless as a laptop. 

[LostName]

1 hour ago, lieder1987 said:

hold down the option key when it boots, that should give you the option to restore via the interwebs.

I did try this, well I think I did, I don't have a mac keyboard so what's the windows keyboard equivalent?

1 hour ago, Sprawlie said:

I believe that to go straight into the internet recovery mode if you have nothing on the drive, you can hold

COMMAND+OPTION+R immediately on power on. That should take you directly to the internet recovery.

 What is COMMAND+OPTION+R on a windows keyboard? my mac one has gone missing, blame that on the move. 

1 hour ago, Sprawlie said:

Seriously need to think of SOMETHING to do with this 2011 Macbook Air. but only 2gb of RAM makes it a bit of a let down for modern use (Though it's still 100% usable). Unfortunately, the screen is broken, so it's useless as a laptop. 

Well the idea for this box is to be a general media centre for the living room, it has no other use so I thought this would be a great use for it. Maybe this would be a good use for your Macbook Air. Otherwise I would be tempted to sell it. 

[Sprawlie]

1 minute ago, MrBlueSea said:

I did try this, well I think I did, I don't have a mac keyboard so what's the windows keyboard equivalent?
 

 

 What is COMMAND+OPTION+R on a windows keyboard? my mac one has gone missing, blame that on the move. 

 

Well the idea for this box is to be a general media centre for the living room, it has no other use so I thought this would be a great use for it. Maybe this would be a good use for your Macbook Air. Otherwise I would be tempted to sell it. 

Already have Media devices on all my TV's, (plus they're smart TVs). 

 

I'd be tempted to sell it, but it's still usable. Wondering how much a replacement display assembly would cost me. Give the laptop to my niece. 

[ChuckMaurice]

1 minute ago, MrBlueSea said:

I did try this, well I think I did, I don't have a mac keyboard so what's the windows keyboard equivalent?
 

 

 What is COMMAND+OPTION+R on a windows keyboard? my mac one has gone missing, blame that on the move. 

 

Well the idea for this box is to be a general media centre for the living room, it has no other use so I thought this would be a great use for it. Maybe this would be a good use for your Macbook Air. Otherwise I would be tempted to sell it. 

It would be Windows+Alt+R

 

If your macOS version is too old you won't have the option to reinstall from online servers. I think they started giving that option with Mavericks

[LostName]

1 minute ago, jldjul said:

It would be Windows+Alt+R

 

If your macOS version is too old you won't have the option to reinstall from online servers. I think they started giving that option with Mavericks

This is probably true for mine, as I have got it into single user mode. I will try a USB boot of Ubuntu. Will update later

[ChuckMaurice]

4 minutes ago, MrBlueSea said:

This is probably true for mine, as I have got it into single user mode. I will try a USB boot of Ubuntu. Will update later

Again, what was your macOS version?

I haven't tried to install Ubuntu on a "blank" Mac but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work. The tutorial you linked is ok, if it's not creating the boot drive properly you can use http://www.linuxliveusb.com/en/home

[LostName]

I have had success!
So very late last night I got to the machine and thought I would take another poke at it.
Firstly I booted into single user mode to see if the keyboard was working, it was single user mode loaded, from here I thought it would be a good idea to find out what Mac I was working with so I typed

system_profiler SPHardwareDataType

which gave me the following information

Quote

Model Name: Mac mini aluminium

Model Identifier: Macmini4,1

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz 

and so on, next i thought i would check the system version so I typed

sw_vers

output was

Quote

ProductName: Mac OS X Server

ProductVersions: 10.6.6

BuildVersion: 10J567

Anyways at this point I knew internet recovery would not work, so I restarted the machine, Holding the ALT key. I have tired this before but this time it brought up a drive selection options. Bingo! Rushed to my windows desktop download Ubuntu using their guide and Rufus to make a usb boot. Inserted the usb stick into the machine and the drive showed up in the drive section options without even a reboot. Booted into Ubuntu and did the install and all is good. There is some slight performance issues but I think this is driver based. Thank you all for your help.