installing el capitan to a blank mac

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installing el capitan to a blank mac

I bought a second hand mac with no OS installed at all. I was informed that it originally ran El Capitan, but upon running to download the new OS, I have read on that Apple no longer supply this download.

I have followed plenty of guides today on how to download the DMG to a usb but I cannot for the life of me see how to unpack the DMG using the disk utility or any other means.

I have used 7zip on my Windows PC to view and extract the files but I still cannot get the USB to load anything on the mac; The only thing that ever runs, even holding down command upon power-on is the recovery partition on the mac itself.

Can anyone assist please? I am really struggling here as this is my first mac and i'm trying to tinker a bit.

iMac, OS X 10.11

Posted on Feb 19, 2021 10:17 AM

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Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,608 points

Feb 19, 2021 6:32 PM in response to thom804

You need a mac to unpack the InstallMacOSX.dmg.

If you can borrow a mac and it is functioning then you can download

El Capitan using this method.

How to get old versions of macOS – Apple Support

Go to Download OS and click on OS X El Capitan 10.11

this downloads InstallMacOSX.dmg to your Downloads folder.

The next section can only be done on a mac that is capable of running El Capitan.

This includes macs that have the potential to run El Capitan but have been upgraded to a newer OS.

A mac that came preinstalled with an OS later than El Capitan will refuse to do the next bit.

When downloaded open to InstallMacOSX.pkg, double-click on

that and an installation window will open, this does not install El Capitan

but converts the InstallMacOSX.pkg to the Install OS X El Capitan.app which

you will find in your Applications folder, it should be 6.2GBs in size.

(If the installation window asks which disk you want to install to, you must pick

the disk that you are booted to at the time. Not any internal or external disk that

you want to eventually install El Capitan on, that is for later.)

Create a bootable USB installer disk using the Install OS X El Capitan.app in the Applications

folder and the createinstallmedia command in the Terminal app.

Read the instructions here,

How to create a bootable installer for macOS – Apple Support

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installing el capitan to a blank mac

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