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Andy_stetz Author

Level 1

4 points

M1 MacBook - Can't create a Bootable Installer for Older Mac OS (different laptop)

So, I erased by older Hard Drive on my older computer to sell it without making a Bootable Installer (and I don't think I have a Time Machine backup of it).

Mac OS Recovery wants to install Lion (it's 2011 MacBook) and then it can't locate the necessary files to download them. Likely because Apple doesn't keep these available.

I've downloaded a couple of other newer versions of the OS to make a Bootable Installer - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372 . However, since this is a M1 processor it won't open the PKG to make the app that I get the CreateInstallMedia from.

So I think I'm stuck dead in the water. Any ideas of where I can get a Mac OS Installer from otherwise?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Feb 13, 2021 9:29 AM

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

60,596 points

Posted on Feb 13, 2021 5:56 PM

Many people have trouble re-installing macOS 10.7 Lion. Try booting the 2011 laptop using Command + Option + R to see if it will boot to the online macOS installer. If it does boot, then make sure to select the physical drive (not the "Macintosh HD" volume) to partition and format the whole physical internal drive as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled).

If you boot to a macOS 10.11+ installer:

https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/erase-and-reformat-a-storage-device-dskutl14079/mac

If you boot to macOS 10.10 or earlier installer:

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

Otherwise you will need access to another Mac that is compatible with macOS 10.11 or 10.13 so you can create the bootable macOS USB installer.

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M1 MacBook - Can't create a Bootable Installer for Older Mac OS (different laptop)

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