How do I install a clean 10.11.6 system on a PCIe card-SSD?

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Walter Wedler Author

Level 2

286 points

How do I install a clean 10.11.6 system on a PCIe card-SSD?

My 8 core Mac Pro 4.1 has 4 rotary internal drives with different systems installed (10.6.8, 10.10.5, 10.11.6)

I also have a bootable external USB drive and a USB Time Machine backup drive plugged in.

Questions:

Before the SSD system install do I remove all other drives, leave one?

How do I make sure I get nothing newer than El Capitan 10.11.6?

I'm greatful for any helpful advise.

Mac Pro, OS X 10.11

Posted on Jun 9, 2019 4:19 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

134,011 points

Jun 9, 2019 6:11 PM in response to Walter Wedler

There is no default or magic place where MacOS is installed. It installs on the drive you specify. There is no need to remove extra drives unless you think YOU will be confused by having them present.

Look in the Mac App Store on your "purchases" page. You should be able to explicitly download 10.11 El Capitan (latest revision) if you have "purchased" it previously.

You will need to erase the SSD (which then partitions it and creates a default MacOS Volume with the name of your choosing.

Once downloaded, you can install that version of MacOS directly on any drive of your choosing, or stop the Install and make a bootable USB-Stick Installer to use to install again and again..

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Answer 2

Jun 9, 2019 7:26 PM in response to Walter Wedler

You use this procedure direct from Apple. But first, name your 8GB or larger USB stick exactly MyVolume. Then cut and paste the command from the article directly into Terminal without any changes, and press return if it does not 'go'. This uses sudo, which will ask for your Admin password, which MUST be entered (blind) and will not be echoed.

How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

It takes a remarkably long time to complete -- I seem to recall sitting there wondering whether it had crashed for more than 20 minutes.

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Answer 3

Walter Wedler Author

Level 2

286 points

Jun 9, 2019 6:43 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thank you Grant Bennet-Alder

This solved my questions but since you mentioned making a bootable USB stick installer, can you please give step by step instructions? I was never able to make a bootable USB-Stick Installer. I could never boot up on the three I made following online instructions I found. Somebody said I would have to use terminal to get them to boot. I am not good at using terminal.

Thank you for your help!

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Answer 4

Walter Wedler Author

Level 2

286 points

Jun 10, 2019 5:41 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thank you so much for all your help Grant Bennet-Alder !

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How do I install a clean 10.11.6 system on a PCIe card-SSD?

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