i tried to reset my early 2009 iMac to factory settings so we restarted it and erased using disk utility. When we tried to reinstall OS X it suggests El Capitan so we put in my Apple ID (not the original one for the iMac as we got it second hand) but it says the item is temporarily available. How can I reinstall OS X to my iMac?
iMac, OS X 10.11
If you have access to another Mac which can run macOS 10.11, then you can download and create a bootable macOS USB installer using these instructions:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
Otherwise you will need to purchase a retail version of the OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD (one with a black label) so that you can install Snow Leopard so that you then have the ability to download the macOS 10.11 installer:
If you have access to another Mac which can run macOS 10.11, then you can download and create a bootable macOS USB installer using these instructions:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
Otherwise you will need to purchase a retail version of the OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD (one with a black label) so that you can install Snow Leopard so that you then have the ability to download the macOS 10.11 installer:
early 2009 imac reinstall snowleopard
