Reinstall MacOS 10.13

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Level 1

9 points

Reinstall MacOS 10.13

I have a 9 year old MacBook Pro running High Sierra that I used until one month ago when I replaced it with a new MacBook Pro. I found I can get a $50 trade in for the old one, so why not? I used Disk Utility to erase the drive. But I neglected to make a copy of High Sierra to reinstall before I send the machine for trade in. I think the trade in needs a machine that can be booted up, so I tried to reinstall High Sierra from Recovery mode's Disk Utility, Reinstall MacOS option. It found my wifi link and apparently started to download the installer, but crashed after about 20 minutes. I have a copy of the Install Log, if that's of any use to an expert, but I'm not trained enough to understand it. And I don't suppose it's possible to upload the log file to this forum, or is it? The paper clip logo below is apparently for a typed URL link, not a file name to be uploaded. Anyway, what can I do now to be able to reinstall MacOS 10.13 High Sierra. Any constructive help will be very much appreciated.

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.13

Posted on Nov 26, 2019 1:32 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,554 points

Nov 26, 2019 3:47 AM in response to LaoBai

When using macOS Recovery be sure to connect your Mac to your router using a cabled connection, this should ensure the download does not time out. It is also best not to let other devices share the connection whilst the download is in progress.

On your other Mac you can try downloading High Sierra from here, How to upgrade to macOS High Sierra - Apple Support

Once the download has completed you should find Install macOS High Sierra.app in your Applications folder, it should be about 5.23GBs. Using this install app you can make a bootable USB installer using the instructions here,

How to create a bootable installer for macOS – Apple Support

Follow the instructions carefully and select the correct commands for High Sierra.

Once the bootable USB has been created you can transfer it to your older Mac and boot to the USB.

Start the Mac up but press and hold down the option/ alt key until you see the Start up Manager,

select the USB and press Return. When booting up has finished then you will be able to install

High Sierra.

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Answer 2

Nov 26, 2019 4:03 AM in response to LaoBai

Apple has an article, What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac.

For a nine year old Mac, you may need to reinstall the original operating system that it shipped with from the DVD included with the machine at purchase.

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Answer 3

LaoBai Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 26, 2019 3:55 AM in response to Eau Rouge

Thank you very much, Eau Rouge, for the detailed guidance. I'll first try connecting the old Mac by cable to my router; good idea. I had also thought I should try turning of wifi in my other computer while the download is in process, and I'll take your suggestion.

However, as for downloading High Sierra to my other computer: I've tried that and it wasn't allowed, because the new one runs Catalina, so it wouldn't download an earlier version of OS. But maybe I used a wrong protocol to download the HS to the Catalina machine. Are you sure it's possible?

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Answer 4

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,554 points

Nov 26, 2019 4:09 AM in response to LaoBai

As you are on Catalina it is entirely possible that you will be refused downloading High Sierra,

Apple has deemed us users too stupid to want to download an older OS whist booted in a

newer one, not taking into account that user may want to do this in order to install the downloaded

OS on another older machine.

When you go to the High Sierra download page in the App Store what option do you see,

do you see Get, and if you press Get do you get the error message.

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Answer 5

LaoBai Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 26, 2019 11:18 PM in response to Eau Rouge

By using a cable link to the router the download and reinstall succeeded, mostly while I slept. It’s now bootable to High Sierra. I also signed out of iCloud and iTunes n on this old machine. I think it’s ready to be sent when I get the packaging instructions from phobio. Your tip about cable connection was the key. Many thanks.

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Reinstall MacOS 10.13

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