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I found an iMac in the dumpster…Everything seems to work fine but it wont load the OS…It wont go into internet recovery and it wont go into safe mode…and it wont go into single user or VBIOS or diagnostics…It is literally the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me…I need this iMac for graphics design and I would rather not have to spend much to fix it…Whats up with this abandoned iMac and why is there a copy of Lion OS in it?
This older series doesn’t offer Internet recovery. The 2011 models are the first ones. The highest macOS this system will support is High Sierra (10.13.x). Frankly, I would recommend sticking with Sierra (10.12.x) as the better one for your system. You’ll need to create a bootable OS installer USB thumb drive from a working Mac using this file How to upgrade to macOS Sierra Jump to Step 4 to the blue URL link ‘Download macOS Sierra’ Do note the file is compressed so you need to double click it to open it to get to the installer inside. Then follow this guide: How to create a bootable macOS Sierra installer drive With the competed Bootable installer you should be able to boot up your system. Restart your system and press the Option (⌥) key to select your installer to then reformat your drive and install a fresh OS onto the drive. Reference: Mac startup key combinations
