Chosen Solution
Hi Everyone, I’ve replaced the HDD on my Late 2013 21.5” iMac A1418 (EMC 2638). After installing the new HDD the iMac on power up showed the folder with question mark, I’ve inserted USB with High Sierra 10.13 created with TransMac after started install it showed Apple logo and was stuck 10minutes, I’ve pressed the power button, after power up again the iMac is stuck on chime reboot (5 sec) tried to boot in Safe Mode, tried PRAM reset (pressing the Option, Command & P + R keys before pressing power button) any ideas? Best Regards
OK, so you swapped the HDD with a new formatted one. Assuming this drive is in perfect condition and correctly connected, The reason why after the chime (the sound) the folder with the question mark shows up is because the system does not find a bootable drive (I think EFI doesn’t have set up to boot from USB drives by default). So It’s most likely that you don’t boot from the USB drive or even that USB bootable copy was not correctly made. Try to start up with the drive attached and pressing and holding the Option (⌥) key immediately upon hearing the startup chime. Release the key when the StartupManager appears, showing you two possible options: your internal HDD and the install USB drive. Hope this helps!
Lets try this, Instead of booting up under the USB thumb drive or using Option, Command & P + R. Lets use the built-in Internet recovery service again. With your system connected to the internet (Ethernet or WiFi) follow this Apple T/N Reinstall from macOS Recovery. This time lets just run Command (⌘)-R
