Uanble to install operting system

Hi ku4hx, thanks for your response.

Unfortunately when I started the Macbook up it took me to the language options, then straight to the utilities screen, I pressed the reinstall option and it gave me the error stated above, it would not reinstall the OS, from here it goes back to the utilities screen and will not install, there were no other questions, just the language option.

I have not erased the drive as the options to this are greyed out, as in when i click on them they do not do anything and when I hover over them it states the operation can not be performed.

I have already created a bootable USB using TransMac on a PC as I do not have access to another Mac OS based system, and when I am in the terminal there is no way to log into an account, it just shows "bash", when i insert the bootable USB drive and hold alt key down it just brings up the OS X drive, not the USB, so I can not boot from the USB as it doesn't show up until I am at the disk utility screen.

The Macbook does think I am in america (PDT time) but I am in the UK, so maybe this is the problem, but have no way to change it to the UK.

I will try and create a bootable USB through the terminal but like I say it seems I need to be logged into an account to carry out most commands on there.

Thanks once again for your reply

JTBO

Having clicked the link to create a bootable USB it states that I need to use a Mac to download the installer that is compatible with the OS and that the installer to be located on the machine that is creating the bootable USB.

As stated earlier, I created a bootable USB with TransMac, should this work or are there problems with compatibility using this app, if so is there another third party app people would recommend or should I just stick to Apple?

I dont have access to another Mac, I have asked a friend that has one and they are going to try and help tomorrow, so hopefully I will have an update tomorrow.

JTBO

OK, so after creating a bootable USB with another Macbook Air I am still unable to install an OS, we have tried with three different USB sticks, including the one my friend used to re-install their OS when they replaced the HD on their Macbook, and none of them will work, they dont come up as a bootable drive.

The Macbook is now starting up and showing a flashing folder with a question mark in the middle, I have never seen this screen before, does anyone know what I need to do at this screen?

I am genuinely at a loss as to what else to try, I have followed all Apple guides that I can and nothing seems to be working.

I decided to have a look inside the Mac so i coud remove the HD and noticed that the NVME drive has a proprietary connector as I was going to remove the drive a format it outside of the Mac so it would be like a brand new drive, but can not do this due to the proprietary connector.

I don't want to buy a replacement drive in case it doesn't work and ill have wasted that money.

Any further help would be greatly appreciated.

If i format the drive through the terminal will this format it fully or will it just be at the same state that it is in now?

Also the family member is not computer savvy so could they possibly have done something wrong during the "factory reset"?

JTBO

Hi Luicius_Fox

Thanks for your reply.

I have tried using option, cmd and R, it starts and runs for around 20 minutes, progress bar goes up then it just stops and gives the following error:

apple.com/support -5101F

I have tried this numerous times and on different networks in case the internet was dropping out and get the same error each time.

I am starting to think the problem could be something not done correctly by previous owner when factory resetting or the fact the Macbook thinks I am in PDT timezone so is trying to connect to the wrong server when I try to re-install from the web or cannot auth certificate because it is in the wrong region, I have changed the date and time using the terminal date -u etc. but even after entering the correct timezone when I run date from terminal it reverts back to PDT time.

I work on Linux and Windows everyday and don't really do much with Apple products so would rather sort it myself to learn than call apple support as I have tried every guide they offer, but to no avail, I have a few more tricks up my sleeve to try and if no go then I will call into a Apple shop or call support and see what they think.

I just can't believe how easy Windows and Linux are compared to MacOS, but I will keep trying.

Thanks again.

JTBO

Fixed.

Base OS was corrupt.

JTBO