I don’t know what do from here. I have entered password 55 minutes ago and nothing is happening. Cursor is just blinking
MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15
So you downloaded InstallOS.dmg, from the Apple How To Upgrade page
and you opened that to the InstallOS.pkg, then double clicking on that you would
open an Installation window where you select your internal drive and the installer
creates Install macOS Sierra.app in your Application folder.
Next would be to create a bootable USB installer using the createinstallmedia command in Terminal.
Now as I said there is a problem with this returning an error but there is a work around,
in Terminal copy and paste the following command, (the Install macOS Sierra.app must be in your Applications folder)
sudo plutil -replace CFBundleShortVersionString -string "12.6.03" /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Info.plist
press Return.
now you should use the createinstallmedia command.
Again your Install macOS Sierra.app needs to be in the Applications folder, if you rename your USB stick to MyVolume all you need to do is to copy and paste the command below, or just change MyVolume in the command below to the name of your USB stick.
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app
press Return
Try that and see how you get on.
So you downloaded InstallOS.dmg, from the Apple How To Upgrade page
and you opened that to the InstallOS.pkg, then double clicking on that you would
open an Installation window where you select your internal drive and the installer
creates Install macOS Sierra.app in your Application folder.
Next would be to create a bootable USB installer using the createinstallmedia command in Terminal.
Now as I said there is a problem with this returning an error but there is a work around,
in Terminal copy and paste the following command, (the Install macOS Sierra.app must be in your Applications folder)
sudo plutil -replace CFBundleShortVersionString -string "12.6.03" /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Info.plist
press Return.
now you should use the createinstallmedia command.
Again your Install macOS Sierra.app needs to be in the Applications folder, if you rename your USB stick to MyVolume all you need to do is to copy and paste the command below, or just change MyVolume in the command below to the name of your USB stick.
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app
press Return
Try that and see how you get on.
Yes, I dowloaded the InstallOS.dmg and gone through the stages to get Install macOS Sierra.app - it is sitting in my Applications folder.
I downloaded macOs Sierra from here https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT208202 2 days ago.
I followed instructions outlined in this YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/64IOWM8ezyk.
I typed in my password and pressed Enter and cursor started blinking and then the light on my external HDD started blinking and after an hour nothing else happened.
In the end I had to stop it all.
I am running Catalina on Macbook Pro mid-2012. If that helps in any way.
My bad, I obviously didn’t understand your question :).
This is exactly what I did:
I formatted my external drive using Disk Utility:
From View I clicked on All Devices
Under External I selected on my drive (WD My Passport 2626 Media) and clicked on Erase button.
Name: Sierra
Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Scheme: GUID Partition Map
Erase
Downloaded macOS Sierra from: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT208202.
To install the macOS installer I did this:
Double-clicked the downloaded file (InstallOS.dmg) and double-clicked on InstallOS.pkg and followed on-screen instructions to install it.
Check Applications and found Install macOS Sierra.app.
Followed your instructions:
Next would be to create a bootable USB installer using the createinstallmedia command in Terminal.
Now as I said there is a problem with this returning an error but there is a work around, in Terminal copy and paste the following command, (the Install macOS Sierra.app must be in your Applications folder)
sudo plutil -replace CFBundleShortVersionString -string "12.6.03" /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Info.plist
press Return.
now you should use the createinstallmedia command.
Again your Install macOS Sierra.app needs to be in the Applications folder, if you rename your USB stick to MyVolume all you need to do is to copy and paste the command below, or just change MyVolume in the command below to the name of your USB stick.
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app
press Return
My Terminal during creation of bootable disk:
Ready to start.
To continue we need to erase the disk at /Volumes/Sierra.
If you wish to continue type (Y) then press return: y (Return)
Erasing Disk: 0%… 20%… 30%… 100%…
Copying installed files to disk…
Copy complete.
Making disk bootable…
Copy boot files…
Copy complete.
Done.
Installed Sierra on external drive:
I shut down my mac and then turned it on and pressed on Option key.
Selected my external drive Sierra (yellow)
Followed instructions on screen.
Selected external drive again (yellow).
Got error “Volume contains an OS X installation which might be damaged”
Where and when did you download macOS Sierra from. Tell us exactly what you did.
Have you downloaded the InstallOS.dmg and gone through the stages to get
Install macOS Sierra.app in your Applications folder.
Apple released an updated version of macOS Sierra with new certificates in October 2019.
The problem with this is that you cannot make a bootable USB with it, Apple made a mistake
with the coding.
Usually Terminal returns the error 'Volumes/MyVolume is not a valid mount point.
So can you tell me what Terminal commands were you using.
If you created the bootable USB installer using the copy of Sierra made from the InstallOS.dmg you downloaded
through the How To Upgrade To macOS Sierra then it should not have an expired certificate.
Does the error message relate to the bootable USB installer or to the external disk you are trying to install to.
Does the external disk already have a macOS on it.
Does the error message relate to the bootable USB installer or to the external disk you are trying to install to <— how would I know?
No, external drive does not have macOS on it. I purchased a brand new 1T drive just to install older macOS for some Adobe software that I can’t run on Catalina.
You would know because it is your mac, I can't see what you are doing.
How is the external drive formatted.
Did you format it using Disk Utility.
When you boot up to the bootable USB, do you see the Utilities panel,
and did you click on Install OS and press Continue.
This should open the installer, at some stage it should ask you which disk
you want to install Sierra on. Were you given the choice to select your
external disk, and if so what happened next.
Right it sounds like you used your external drive to create a bootable installer, and you are now using that bootable installer drive to install Sierra on to itself, you cannot do that.
You would have been better off creating a bootable USB stick installer, and using that to install Sierra onto your external drive.
Thank you soooo much :).
This worked and it was really quick.
I just tried to install Sierra on my external drive and got an error message “Volume contains an OS X installation which might be damaged”. Expired certificate?
Oh wow, I missed something so logical 😄. Thank you so much for you patience. Once I used USB to create bootable and external drive to install Sierra everything worked perfect.
Thank you soo much ♥️
I am trying to create a bootable Sierra on external hard drive. I am stuck in Terminal after entering password