Apple iMac "Core 2 Duo" 2.4 GHz 20" Early 2008 Specs

I finally got this resolved. I found a bootable usb El Capitan software on Amazon for $20. Received it today, came home, put it in Mac and 20 minutes later my iMac was reloaded. For some reason, reloading the OS via the mac didn't work. i was online with apple for an hour and they wanted to escalate it if it didn't work at home, which it didn't but the usb did. best 20$ I have spent.

Thanks again Erica for your input. I learned many things today. Now I can moved forward and learn the mac. I am already planning memory upgrades for my mac. It doesnt look too difficult, but the hard drive does, which I will plan down the road.

Thanks again for your help.

I tried creating a bootable usb. I tried this command

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app

But command not found for sudo.

I checked echo $PATH and my path is:

/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

I tried to redo my path with the following:

export

PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"

I didn't see a /usr/local folder when I tried to navigate to it

Thanks Erica. I will look at your links.