How to Install El Capitan from USB to a 2011 Macbook Pro with a blank SSD

if you were able to make a proper USB-stick installer, it is BOOTABLE, and that is the only way to install from it.

Hold Option at startup to invoke startup Manager. You get a blank screen, then over the next several minutes, your Mac will attempt to discover, by brute force, any connected potentially-bootbale drives, and draw an Icon for each.

Click on the icon you want and tell it to go. It should boot from a properly-crafted Installer USB-stick.

<< I meant the screen presented when you boot holding the shift key. >>

Recovery does not allow booting to other bootable drives. The shift key invokes recovery.

You need the Option key to invoke the startup manager, which is NOT THE SAME.

John Galt, you are quite right, I am jumping out of my chair getting excited that the original author is close, but not quite there yet.

Maybe this article would help:

Mac startup key combinations - Apple Support

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I know you’re close, but almost anything with Lion seems iffy now. I still have an old MacBook with Snow Leopard. I’ve tried to install Lion after Apple made it a free upgrade, but I always get errors and it won’t install.

But it sounds like you discovered the trick with Internet Recovery. Which is option-command-R.

Use macOS Recovery on an Intel-based Mac - Apple Support

Immediately press and hold one of the following key combinations until you see the startup screen:

* Command-R: Start up from the built-in macOS Recovery System. Use this key combination to reinstall the latest macOS that was installed on your system, or to use the other apps in macOS Recovery.

* Option-Command-R: Start up from macOS Recovery over the internet. Use this key combination to reinstall macOS and upgrade to the latest version of macOS that’s compatible with your Mac.

* Option-Shift-Command-R: Start up from macOS Recovery over the internet. Use this key combination to reinstall the version of macOS that came with your Mac or the closest version that’s still available.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

on Macs before about mid-2013, Apple Hardware Test is pre-installed deep in a system directory, and also bootable off the 2 of 2 release DVD.

The problem is that if you ever replace or even completely erase the startup disk, no software is responsible for putting the diagnostic back in that system directory, and with later versions of MacOS, writing it back there is very, very difficult.

👍

FYI I was curious if Apple deprecated the Internet version of AHT, but I just tried it on a 2011 MBP that had been retrofitted with an aftermarket SSD. It works.

The Internet version of AHT was 3A222. The one on disk (another Mac) is 3A152.

So at least it seems iAHT is still available.

⌥ D on startup forces iAHT.

You get the "Starting Internet Recovery, this may take a while" spinning globe first; the same one that appears in Internet Recovery. But eventually you get the AHT icon:

Diagnostics on Macs does NOT run inside the regular Operating System.

Diagnostics on Macs before about 2013 is problematic, and will require many additional steps, similar to creating a bootable USB-stick.

on Macs before about mid-2013, Apple Hardware Test is pre-installed deep in a system directory, and also bootable off the 2 of 2 release DVD.

The problem is that if you ever replace or even completely erase the startup disk, no software is responsible for putting the diagnostic back in that system directory, and with later versions of MacOS, writing it back there is very, very difficult.

A user decided to collect all the versions of Apple hardware test they could find (they are not sensitive, so apple has not squashed them). More explanation and links to the versions collected here:

https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest

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if you need this, I recommend the bootable USB-stick method.

trying to force it back into the correct system directory is very difficult.

one more note. Some Macs at the cusp of switchover (to later Apple Diagnostics) think they can use Internet recovery to fetch the downloadable version of Apple Hardware test. So far, they appear to be mistaken and will fail to obtain the software.

D-for-diagnostics at Startup works just as you described on my 2011 15-in MacBook Pro.

Internet Recovery spins the globe for under a minute, then the familiar Apple Hardware Test Icon you posted, then it starts to scan for what Hardware is present, and gets ready to begin testing when you say 'Test'.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

on Macs before about mid-2013, Apple Hardware Test is pre-installed deep in a system directory, and also bootable off the 2 of 2 release DVD.

The problem is that if you ever replace or even completely erase the startup disk, no software is responsible for putting the diagnostic back in that system directory, and with later versions of MacOS, writing it back there is very, very difficult.

A user decided to collect all the versions of Apple hardware test they could find (they are not sensitive, so apple has not squashed them). More explanation and links to the versions collected here:

https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest

.

Depends on what you mean "before". I had a couple of Macs where AHT was only available from a dedicated CD, although I was able to run off of an archival copy of said CD to use instead of the original. Later ones only worked from holding down a key while starting from the original OS X reinstall DVDs. This was long before internet recovery was an option and before it was preinstalled on the boot drive.

NOT the recovery screen.

If you are getting the recovery screen, you have not successfully invoked the startup manager.

The Shift key invokes Safe Mode on your Mac.