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Chan Mckearn Author

Level 1

9 points

I'm trying to create an El Capitan bootable external hard drive to resurrect one of my older Macs. I'm using a Mac running Big Sur to create the start up disk

I'm trying to create an El Capitan bootable external hard drive to resurrect one of my older Macs. I'm using a Mac running Big Sur and when I download the InstallMacOSX.dmg and open it I see the InstallMacOSX.pkg but I can't run it on my computer because it says my newer Mac isn't compatible with El Capitan. I already new that, but I'm not trying to install it on this computer, I'm trying to install it on an external hard drive

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Sep 29, 2021 1:44 PM

Top-ranking reply

a brody

Level 10

84,157 points

Posted on Oct 9, 2021 3:40 PM

El Capitan can only run on mid 2016 and older Macs. Doesn't matter if you are trying to install it on an external hard drive. The installer must be run off the older Mac.

Now you could hook the external hard drive to older Mac, and use internet recovery to install the operating system on the external hard drive so you can see if anything is visible on the internal hard drive. Internet recovery is command-option-shift-R at startup.

Note, older Macs than mid-2011 may only run off their bundled installer discs using the Option key at startup. So the question is how old the Mac you are trying to resurrect?

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I'm trying to create an El Capitan bootable external hard drive to resurrect one of my older Macs. I'm using a Mac running Big Sur to create the start up disk

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