Restore of Mac OS X Lion to mid-2011 Macbook Air fails

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Restore of Mac OS X Lion to mid-2011 Macbook Air fails

Background: The Macbook Air 11-inch (mid-2011) I bought for my daughter has not seen much use over the past couple of years and the battery was bulging and needed replacement. I wanted to keep this handy little laptop so I installed a replacement battery from OWC and then reformatted the HD to start over. However, I cannot restore OS X Lion. Using Mac OS X Utilities the process appears to go as intended until immediately after the Macintosh SSD is selected as the destination drive (by the way, that drive was verified by Disk Utility as good). The estimated time for the install is displayed as "-2,147,483,648 hours and 11 minutes remaining". Then it changes to "0 seconds remaining" before reverting to that ridiculously large negative number and back several time. Then a message window displays that reads "Can't download the additional components needed to install Mac OS X".

Is Mac OS X Lion no longer available as a restoration download from Apple? This laptop will not run Catalina, so what do I do? Any advice would be appreciated.

Posted on Aug 28, 2020 1:00 PM

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Answer 1

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HWTech

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Sep 4, 2020 5:36 PM in response to SIBoyd

SIBoyd wrote:

Using the article you provided by link as guidance I made an OS X El Capitan installer on a USB using another Macbook Air (mid-2013) that I recently installed El Capitan on. I booted my Macbook Air 2011 using that install USB, went through the process to install El Capitan on the MB Air. The process started and then stopped right after choosing the computer's disk as the installation destination and displayed the following error message, "This copy of the Install OS X El Capitan application can't be verified. It may have been corrupted or tampered with during downloading." So, installation of El Capitan also won't work.

Did you perform a clean install by first erasing the SSD using Disk Utility before clicking "Reinstall macOS"? Erase the SSD as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled). With the El Capitan you may need to select the "Partition" tab/button as described in this OWC document:

https://www.owcdigital.com/assets/support/support-formatting-and-migration/Mac_Formatting_6-10.pdf

Try using a different USB stick since the quality of many USB sticks is quite poor and it may have corrupted the installer.

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Answer 2

HWTech

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68,312 points

Sep 7, 2020 4:51 PM in response to SIBoyd

SIBoyd wrote:

I was able to install macOS High Sierra ver. 10.13.6 on my Macbook Air 11-inch (mid-2011).

That is good to hear! I'm glad you were able to sort it all out.

My guess is that the install USB drive I made using earlier OS El Capitan and the attempted restore of the original OS X Lion didn't work because those operating systems are no longer supported in some way. Anyway, that solved my problem.

I've seen a lot of people posting about issues reinstalling Lion. The problem with Lion is it was a paid upgrade so if it is not associated with your AppleID there may be issues. Plus I'm not entirely sure the Lion installer is working properly (I don't have any systems where that has been an option as most of our systems default to Mountain Lion as the oldest supported OS).

As for macOS 10.11 El Capitan it is working properly once it is properly "installed" to the Applications folder so that a bootable macOS USB installer can be made. If you are using an older version of the installer downloaded over a year ago, then it will have issues because the certificates for it have expired (changing the system date to to 2018 usually resolves that issue). The other common issue making the USB installers is the quality of the USB sticks used for the installer. The quality of many USB sticks is awful (even ones from a respectable name brand).

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Answer 3

HWTech

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Aug 29, 2020 8:33 PM in response to SIBoyd

You can download the macOS 10.11 and 10.13 installers on your 2012 iMac running Catalina. Once the installers are downloaded and located in the Applications folder you use the Terminal app and the command line to create a bootable macOS 10.11 or 10.13 USB installer. Carefully read the instructions on the article I linked earlier on how to download the older macOS installers and create a bootable macOS USB installer. If you want to create a macOS 10.11 El Capitan installer, then make sure to read the instructions even more carefully since there is a couple of extra steps involved in the process, but the steps are clearly documented in the Apple articles.

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Answer 4

SIBoyd Author

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Sep 7, 2020 1:03 PM in response to SIBoyd

I was able to install macOS High Sierra ver. 10.13.6 on my Macbook Air 11-inch (mid-2011). My guess is that the install USB drive I made using earlier OS El Capitan and the attempted restore of the original OS X Lion didn't work because those operating systems are no longer supported in some way. Anyway, that solved my problem.

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Answer 5

HWTech

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68,312 points

Aug 29, 2020 6:43 PM in response to SIBoyd

If one of the Macs which is running Catalina is compatible with macOS 10.11 or 10.13, then you can use them to create a bootable macOS USB installer. A MacBook Pro as late as 2016 (maybe even 2017) can run macOS 10.13 and could be used to create the installer for you.

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Answer 6

HWTech

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68,312 points

Sep 5, 2020 11:06 AM in response to SIBoyd

The "disk1" and "Mac OS X Base System" is a virtual drive/file system containing the macOS installer so it cannot be erased.

Your picture shows "Macintosh HD" being highlighted. I would suggest clicking on the "121.33 Apple GB S..." which is the physical drive and either "erase" or "partition" it as described earlier (which option depends on the OS being used). If you have done this, then the issue is else where.

So you created a macOS 10.11 USB installer that had issues. Have you tried using another brand of USB stick for the macOS USB installer in case the USB stick was the problem? Did you just recently download macOS 10.11 or did you use an older copy? Have you tried creating and using a macOS 10.13 USB installer?

You mentioned earlier that you could boot into Internet Recovery Mode. If you boot into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R what version of macOS is going to be installed?

Was macOS 10.12.6 or 10.13 ever installed on this laptop at any point in its history?

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Answer 7

SIBoyd Author

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23 points

Sep 1, 2020 8:59 AM in response to HWTech

Using the article you provided by link as guidance I made an OS X El Capitan installer on a USB using another Macbook Air (mid-2013) that I recently installed El Capitan on. I booted my Macbook Air 2011 using that install USB, went through the process to install El Capitan on the MB Air. The process started and then stopped right after choosing the computer's disk as the installation destination and displayed the following error message, "This copy of the Install OS X El Capitan application can't be verified. It may have been corrupted or tampered with during downloading." So, installation of El Capitan also won't work.

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Answer 8

HWTech

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68,312 points

Aug 28, 2020 6:42 PM in response to SIBoyd

I've seen a lot people have issues trying to reinstall Lion. If you have access to another Mac which is compatible with macOS 10.11 or 10.13, then you can create a bootable macOS USB installer:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

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Answer 9

SIBoyd Author

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Aug 29, 2020 1:52 PM in response to HWTech

Thanks for your prompt reply. Unfortunately, in this case, the other Mac computers in my home are running Catalina.

I don't want to have to re-purchase Lion for a laptop that it was originally installed on. And, what's with the negative billion hours remaining to install message?

Anyway, thanks again. I appreciate any and all advice.

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Answer 10

SIBoyd Author

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23 points

Aug 29, 2020 7:36 PM in response to HWTech

I'm using a Mid-2012 Mac Mini running Catalina as my computer. But, a bootable USB installer would then be Catalina, wouldn't it? I thought I read that the Macbook Air mid-2011, that I want to get up and running again, is incompatible with Catalina? Or, am I missing something in your response?

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Answer 11

SIBoyd Author

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Sep 2, 2020 7:01 AM in response to SIBoyd

I also found a discussion regarding this same problem in which the solution was proposed to be changing the current computer date to a date before certificates were changed. Due to the odd time display of a negative billions of hours for install I thought this might be a solution, but it did not work either.

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Answer 12

SIBoyd Author

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23 points

Sep 5, 2020 7:48 AM in response to HWTech

Yes, I used Disk Utility to erase and partition the SSD several times (assuming I hadn't done it correctly a previous time). I would even start up in Internet Recovery mode.

Excuse the poor representation of the Disk Utility screen. Capture would not work and I had to take a photo.

The partition labeled "disk1"/"Mac OS X Base System" apparently cannot be changed. That remains there regardless of a new erase or partition of "121.33 GB APPLE SSD SM...". I can do nothing with the "disk1"; in fact, on one screen (I forget which) it was labeled as "locked". I've wondered if that, which I presume is the Restore partition, is the problem with reinstallation of the original OS Lion.

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Answer 13

SIBoyd Author

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Sep 5, 2020 2:08 PM in response to HWTech

""121.33 Apple GB S..." which is the physical drive and either "erase" or "partition" it.." Yeah, I did that too.

I only have one USB drive large enough for the "install OS X El Capitan" files. The install appeared to start properly from that but failed later. I don't know if that would be due to the USB drive or not.

I believe internet recovery offered a Lion install.

I forget what OS was last running on the 2011 Macbook Air. I'm sure I would have upgraded past Lion, but I did not make note of what version it was using last.

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