I booted my 2009 iMac into recovery mode and erased the "Macintosh HD" partition in Disk Utility. When I then run "Reinstall OS X", the application "verifies" the computer with Apple, I agree to the license, select my hard drive, and then sign in to the App Store when prompted. Once done, I'm presented with the message:
"This item is temporarily unavailable."
I can't progress beyond this point.
How can I get this thing running again?
Thank you for your response. However, I don't see how it applies to my question; I'm asking about re-installing El Capitan (i.e. OS X 10.11) from the recovery partition of my mac, and that link talks about updates in Mojave (i.e. OS X 10.14).
This can happen if you or a previous owner used another Apple ID and password when updating to El Capitan. In recovery use Safari to go to iCloud .com and sign in. When you sign out click on the trust and sign out. Then try again.
@my ginger:
Thanks, that makes sense.
When I hit icloud.com from within Safari in recovery mode, it loads the page (progress bar along the top completes) but the spinner in the middle of the viewable area never subsides, and I don't get a login prompt. I'm guessing that the current incarnation of icloud.com requires Safari newer than is available to me, i.e. Safari 9.1.2.
It's a real shame that Apple seems to think that network validation with a magical server is a good idea when your computer is hosed.
I just tried it with mine and it works. I have High Sierra. My wife has El Capitan and it works on hers. You could try internet recovery. Command Option R or Command Option Shift R. It will take you to a screen with a spinning globe and a loading bar. May have to enter your Wifi name and password. If you are able to do this it will install the version of OS that was on your Mac before upgrading to ElCapitan. Some 2009 Macs can't do this.
Try a Nvram reset Command Option P R and power button you three chimes. Also a SMC reset. Unplug the iMac and hold the power button for ten seconds. If this doesn't work you may need to use another Mac to download El Capitan and make a bootable flash drive installer.
go here. https://mrmacintosh.com/10-14-6-supplemental-update-safari-14-released-to-fix-previous-issues/
then to step 5. and hopefully all the information will get you going.
Thank you again for your help. I decided to just resort to making a bootable installer, and now I've got it up and running.
El Capitan recovery refuses to re-install
