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n0sugaradded Author

Level 1

4 points

2009 Mac - new HDD - Install of El Captain fails and multiple disk partitions show up

Hello everyone,

A friend gave me an old mac 2009 laptop for one of my kids. OBS,MacBook (13-inch, Late 2009). The HDD failed so I swapped it with another one and went to reinstall El Captain. I keep getting an error when I try to install (photo attached).

I did do the date change command via the terminal. I have it set to Jan 1 2016

This does not have a restore image or anything on the HDD so trying to install via a bootable USB. When I remove the HDD and run diskutil list I see a total of 15 disk images. Many are named untitled and set at 6.3MB and I cannot remove them and have two other disk images that are as follows:

/dev/disk1 (disk image) Apple_HFS OS X Install ESD

/dev/disk2 (disk image) Apple_HFS OS X Base System

I am unsure where to go now as I do not think all these partitions should be there and I can't get the OS to install on the HDD - If anyone has some ideas please let me know.

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Sep 11, 2023 8:27 AM

Top-ranking reply

John Galt

Level 10

147,288 points

Posted on Sep 11, 2023 1:30 PM

Macs from that era shipped with operating system installation media (DVDs) that need to accompany them from cradle to grave.

Assuming your friend did not provide those two grey discs, the only remaining option is to obtain a retail, white, Mac OS X Snow Leopard DVD. You can boot from it to format the replacement hard disk drive, install Snow Leopard, update it, and subsequently upgrade it to El Capitan.

Apple no longer sells them but they are available from aftermarket sources. Caveat emptor as always.

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2009 Mac - new HDD - Install of El Captain fails and multiple disk partitions show up

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