Bootable USB from a DMG (Sierra 10.12). Sierra.app was taken down by apple...
Hi, I am trying to freshly install a copy of Sierra on my Late 2010 iMac. I wanted to install a fresh copy of Sierra. I have done this many times before but this has got to be the worst I've stuck in mud. The first paragraph is the detailed step by step on how I got myself stuck. The second and foregoing paragraphs is where I am stuck now.
To make a fresh copy of Sierra I would need to delete the partition on my SSD. Once I did that I was to proceed to reinstall Sierra using the recovery mode. This was the first error as recovery mode did not connect to the wifi and displayed an error. I googled the error and noticed that my iMac disconnected from the wifi and could not download Sierra. So I logged back in my wifi network but the recovery window was gone. I restarted the computer and the issues began. First the spinning globe appeared on the screen (recovery mode using the internet). About 15 minutes went by until the iMac rebooted and was left for 10 minutes in an apple logo grey screen. So I turned the iMac and once again I was back to the spinning globe. To bypass this recovery mode you must press Cmd+Opn+R or something like that. This is so you override the automatic internet recovery mode. Now a "do not enter" logo appeared. By this point I noticed that I had damaged the recovery option as a whole.
Having the damaged recovery option I am left with installing the OS through a bootable USB. I read apples guides on how to make a bootable installer for Mac OS https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208202. In the guide it says to download Sierra through Apples App Store. This is not possible since my Mac OS Catalina Macbook, through which I am writing this, thinks that I want to downgrade her OS to Sierra. It displays the following error "Update not found: The requested version of macOS is not available". Cool, ****, now I am in deeper trouble.
Since Apple App Store will not allow me to download Sierra I then googled "Sierra Installer" hoping that I could find an installer (that is not an update). This led me to this guide https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372. The guide provides a link to download Sierra Installer. Though it is called "InstallOS.dmg". This is a huge problem since the Terminal code to make a bootable USB needs the actual application and not the DMG file. In other words the sudo command does not recognize "InstallOS.dmg". Its looking for "Install Mac OS High Sierra.app" and to make it a bootable image on my journaled-formatted USB drive.
So this is where I am stuck at. I cannot find Sierra.app installers anywhere in the net. I am thinking that apple deliberately does this so people get tired and take their computers into their Geniuses. As I am finishing writing this I am on the phone with customer service to see if they can give me a Sierra installer.
I have spoken with an customer customer rep named "Hope". She was clueless. They do not have the resources to help us. She guided me back to the Internet Recovery Mode (with the spinning globe). I skipped this step because it seemed stuck at the apple logo. She said that some people wait for a few hours before the recovery menu is once again available. This is exactly where I am now. Waiting.
If this doesn't work Hope suggested that I deal with the my local Geniuses. I asked her if she thought they would be humane enough to hand me a copy of the OS. I swear to god, if they want to charge me a cent I will go apeshit. Apple does this in order for you to get tired and buy a new computer. Apple also does this so that you cannot install a new SSD on older Mac versions (MacBooks, Macs, iMacs, Mac mini, you mame it). Overall I think its a bitchslap on everybody's faces. I have been reinstalling Mac OS for a very long time now and this is the first time this has happened. Before you could download the OS as a .app. Now it offers it to you as a .dmg.
If anyone is interested in finding out if the Internet Recovery Mode finally made it, please comment and ask.