Create bootable installer for High Sierra from M2 Macbook running Sonoma

You can use your OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard restoration DVD (gray label) which originally shipped with the Late-2009 iMac. Then you will be able to at least install macOS 10.11 followed by macOS 10.13 (10.13 requires macOS 10.8+).

You can find a solution here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255069067

Make sure the date & time are set correctly. Another user just confirmed that the older online macOS installers appear to have updated & current security certificates. They reset the date & time to the current date & time and were able to install an older version of macOS.

Use the following command to set the date & time, replacing "HH", "MM" with the current hour & minute in 24 hour time....meaning 1:22pm is "1322". Replace "mm", "dd", and "yy" with the month, day, and year respectively. Make sure all values are two digit values for the date & time, so "2" becomes "02".

date  -u  mmddHHMMyy

I think the following option will configure the Mac to use Apple's own network time servers if booted into a macOS 10.14+ installer:

sntp  -sS  time.apple.com

For macOS 10.13 and earlier, you need to

ntpdate  -vu  time.apple.com

Courtesy of @Mr Hoffmann's post here:

How to change time and date on macbookpro… - Apple Community

FYI, there is no "sudo" in the commands I presented here because you are already at a root prompt in Recovery Mode indicated by the "#" symbol.

akbreezo wrote:

I am getting the blinking gray folder with a ? inside regardless of how I boot now.

It may mean your are not pressing the keys at the correct time. Some Macs can be very particular about when these keys should be pressed. I find it best to press & hold them immediately after hearing the startup chime (you only have about a second on the later Macs). Holding the keys too early (before the startup chime) can prevent the Mac from recognizing the keys.

It is best to use a wired USB keyboard since some wireless keyboards may not be available soon enough to register the special keys.

Or @BDAqua is correct on a failing drive. If you have an Early or Mid-2009 iMac, then you only have access to local recovery mode which is on the internal hard drive. If you have a Late-2009 iMac which had macOS 10.12.4+ installed at some point, then you should boot into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R so that you access the online installer which bypasses the local recovery mode on the internal hard drive. A very severe drive failure could prevent even booting to Internet Recovery Mode.

You're correct...sadly. :(

Have you tried this?

Start up from macOS Recovery

Option-⌘-R

Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.

In Disk Utility>View, select Show all Devices, highlight the top left entry.

APFS won't work for Sierra or earlier, Sierra or earlier needs MacOS Extended Journaled. High Sierra won't work for APFS on earlier Macs.

What has often worked for others is to use this Restore Method instead of CMD+r keys...

Option-⌘-R

Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.

could not create a reboot volume for apfs… - Apple Community

Remote Recovery Fails to install Sierra -… - Apple Community

Messed up Factory Reset on MacBook Pro Mi… - Apple Community

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254793247?answerId=258936149022#258936149022

Clean Install of High Sierra: Multiple Fa… - Apple Community

An Error Occurred While Preparing The Ins… - Apple Community

That means it can't find the boot drive. possibly due tom HDD failure, do you have an external drive?

Have you done a PRAM reset, CMD+Option+p+r...

Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

In fact, do 3 in a row, takes a bit of time.

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)...

Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

Command (⌘)-R

Install the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac.

Option-⌘-R

Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.

Shift-Option-⌘-R

Install the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.

OK, so here is something that will work for you - you appear to already have the High Sierra app downloaded (I assume on your M2 laptop). You will need 2 x USB drives, one of which you want to format into the bootable installer. Copy the High Sierra installer onto the other one.

Boot into Recovery Mode on the old laptop and insert both USB drives.

Launch the Terminal from the menubar Utilities dropdown. Run "ls /Volumes" if you like to confirm both USB drives are mounted (if you like - but probably a good idea to confirm). For the purposes of this post, I'll assume the drives are named "Storage" and "Installer" and show up mounted at /Volumes/Storage and /Volumes/Installer

You will run the command to create the installer, but modified to account for the non-standard locations:

/Volumes/Storage/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Installer

• The paths are modified to reflect the fact that two USB are in use;
• You are in Recovery Mode so you are already the superuser and sudo isn't needed

This should give you a useable installer and you can pull out the other storage USB when you reboot, hold the option key and the bootable installer should come up as a boot option.

If the Mac supports Internet Recovery, use this workaround to install High Sierra (I hope Apple some day fixes this...):

https://mrmacintosh.com/how-to-fix-the-recovery-server-could-not-be-contacted-error-high-sierra-recovery-is-still-online-but-broken/

 Command-R is generally recommended, especially if you never installed macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later… How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

Use Terminal to make a botable usb, that's easy!