How to restore older Mac with a new one

I apologize if this is repetitive but I cannot for the life of me find an answer. I am trying to restore a 2008 iMac that was robbed from my grandfather and finally got back. I upgraded the hard drive to an SSD and have run into the issue of not being able to actually install macOS. I only have my 2017 Mac running Big Sur and cannot use any of Apple’s documentation of how to install older versions. (Download the DMG, open it and double click the installer) I have tried and just get the message that it’s not compatible with my system. I’ve downloaded older DMGs hoping to restore them to a usb drive but even that has proven unsuccessful. If anyone has been able to install Mac OS X on a much older Mac using a new one can you please let me know how to go about it? I’m all out of ideas at this point. Even the modded versions of newer macOS can’t give me simple mouse or keyboard functionality.

Thank you so much in advance

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Oct 25, 2021 6:49 PM

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padams35

Level 4

3,613 points

Posted on Oct 25, 2021 8:21 PM

A 2017 is too new to restore a 2008 iMac. You need a Mid-2016 or older model to create a bootable USB installer with El Capitan. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

To elaborate, a mac is only allowed to make installers for versions of MacOS it could run itself, so to make a USB installer for a 2008 you need a mac old enough to have once been able to run El Capitan.

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How to restore older Mac with a new one

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