Late 2011 MacBook Pro new internal SSD hard drive dowloading OS Lion problems

When using the Ethernet cable make sure WiFi isn't switching back on.

Check the date in the top right of the screen.

Have you tried different dates, for example the date I have included ends in 2017 which is the year.

You can change that to other years back to 2012 when Lion was introduced. Might be worth trying.

Did this mac come with install Disks when you bought it new.

Or do you have the Snow Leopard install DVD.

If that doesn't work, do you have access to another mac.

You can use another mac to download one of Apples full installer apps and create a bootable

USB flash drive installer.

In an ideal situation which OS would you like your mac to run, a late 2011 MBP can run all

OS's from MacOS Lion 10.7.5 to macOS High Sierra 10.13.6.

If you have or can borrow another mac to download an installer I can then give you full instructions

on how to create a bootable USB flash installer which you use to install an OS on your mac.

If you can tell me the model and year of the mac you can get access to that would help me give

you more accurate advice on how to go about doing this.

Read this article here,

How to create a bootable installer for macOS – Apple Support (UK)

The certificates for several of Apples OS's expired in October 2019, Apple haven’t bothered getting these updated on 

their Recovery Servers with valid certificates. 

This may be the problem you are experiencing. 

Try this workaround, we are going to set the time and date on your mac to a date previous to the expiry date of the certificates.

Connect your mac to your router via cable, not WiFi

Boot to your Recovery HD, click on Utilities in the menubar select Terminal.

Make sure WiFi is switched off, it can reset the date back to today.

Enter a new date, for example or just copy and paste

sudo date -u 011421002017

press Return

enter your password

press Return

If Terminal returns an error saying sudo : command not found, then try again without sudo.

just enter 

date -u 011421002017

press Return

You won't be prompted for a Password if you did not need to use sudo

Once the date has changed you can quit Terminal.

Now try downloading the OS.

Click on Install OS X, press Continue.

If this works then when the OS is installed and booted up you can Open System Preferences> Date & Time

and reset the time back to today.

In the future you should have a means of installing an OS at your fingertips and not rely on Apple,

follow the instructions here for downloading an OS and creating a bootable USB installer.

How to create a bootable installer for macOS – Apple Support (UK)

Please stop calling them PowerBooks, if they are MacBook Pros call them that.

PowerBooks are very much older and as explained used the older powermac chip which cannot run

newer OS's. I explained that earlier. It is important to give the correct information about your macs

if you want correct answers.

If you took the new SSD and put it in the newer MBP then that MBP would no longer have an OS and

you would be in the same situation you are in with the older MBP at the moment, so abandon that idea.

The simplest and easiest way is to use the MacBook Pro mid 2012 to download an OS installer and

then create a bootable USB installer as described earlier.

Which OS do you want your 2011 MBP with the new SSD to run.

It can install all Mac OS X's and macOS to macOS High Sierra 10.13.6.

Once you have decided which OS you want to install then use the instructions below

to download the OS and create a bootable USB flash drive installer.

How to create a bootable installer for macOS – Apple Support (UK)

Ok so use the mac that is working to download an OS installer and then create a bootable USB installer.

The link to do this has been posted earlier.

If you must have OS X Lion you can get it here,

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2077?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Open the InstallOSX.dmg to get InstallOSX.pkg.

Open that to get an installation window which does not install Lion but creates the

Install OS X Lion.app in your Applications folder.

Now click on this, https://diskmakerx.com/download/ Go to the bottom of the page and click on version 3.0.4

Use that app to create a bootable USB flash drive installer for Mac OS X Lion.

If you would rather download and install Mac OS X El Capitan click on the link

in my earlier post, this will download a different version of the InstallOSX.dmg

which you can then process to get the Install OS X El Capitan.app which you then

use to create a bootable USB flash drive installer using the Terminal command

from the link provided in my earlier post.

If you would prefer to install macOS High Sierra on your mac follow the instructions in the link

I provided earlier, this downloads Install macOS High Sierra.app directly to your Applications folder.

Then you can make a bootable USB flash drive installer using the instructions in the link provided

in my earlier post.

A MacBook Pro from 2011 can only upgrade as far as macOS High Sierra 10.13.6.

A MacBook Pro from 2012 can upgrade to macOS Catalina 10.15.7.

Let's get this clear is it the Snow Leopard DVD or the Leopard DVD.

If it is the Snow Leopard DVD, insert it into your mac and restart while pressing the C key.

This should boot the mac to the DVD where you will be able to install Snow Leopard.

Once you have installed Snow Leopard you will then need to update it to version 10.6.8.

Click here, https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

once downloaded double click to install.

Having updated to version 10.6.8 open the App Store Updates page and install any further updates.

Now your mac should is ready to be upgraded further.

How to get old versions of macOS - Apple Support You can decide on Mac OS X Yosemite or Mac OS X El Capitan, read the instructions for these thoroughly.

After installing Yosemite or El Capitan you can then choose to upgrade to macOS High Sierra.

If you cannot do any of that then you will need to use another mac as described before.

If you installed Leopard you would still need to install Snow Leopard before you could upgrade further.

Are you sure it is a PowerBook you have if so that might be no use as that uses the power mac chip which

is unable to create a bootable USB.

If it is a MacBook Pro with the Intel chip then you should be able to, please clarify which mac it is and what

year and what OS it is running.