Hard drive crash on 2009 iMac, can't restore

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love(d) 2009 imac. few days ago, hard drive gave ghost. no problem, said myself. i've been backed time machine whole time. apple rad!

took imac shop , ha guy replace hard drive blank one. used lion thumb drive (i running lion) attempt boot , restore. fail. circle-slash.

used old leopard dvd. told me, "you can't install mac os x on computer, can restore.". okay, fine me! restored time machine... restore 2009. leopard.

tried lion install on thumb drive. "you can't install lion on computer.". maybe that's because don't have snow leopard. okay, put install dvd in. "you can't install snow leopard on computer.".

okay, think it. did apple didn't like. did wrong? and, more importantly, how can restore old system being held hostage on external backup drive?

 

have tried booting leopard install dvd or lion thumbdrive , using disk utility reformat new hdd before trying install lion?

 

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