I installed a new drive in my 2017 A1466 Macbook Air and it has a Base system on it no bootable partition. When I restart with Command Option R the machine goes thru Internet Recovery and presents the screen with choices for Reinstall MAc OS, disk utility, support etc. When I choose reinstall MAC OS (Sierra) it starts the process but quickly ends with NoBag error. How do I get this new drive working and bootable? Thanks all!
Try booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to attempt to access the online macOS 12.x Monterey installer. If you installed a third party SSD internally, then macOS 10.12 Sierra will not be able to even see the third party SSD since it does not have the necessary drivers to work with an NVMe SSD.
Unfortunately some Macs may only boot to the older online macOS installer which originally shipped with the Mac from the factory.....which in your case using a third party internal NVMe SSD will not work. You could remove the new SSD and connect it externally to install Sierra, then upgrade to a later OS while the SSD is still connected externally (should be able to install at least High Sierra, but should be able to install Big Sur...not sure about the Monterey installer since it added some other restrictions). After upgrading to at least macOS 10.13+, then you can reinstall the new SSD internally & it should boot to the internal SSD.
Otherwise, you will need access to another Mac that is compatible with an OS that this 2017 Air can run (macOS 10.13 - 12.x) so that you can create a bootable macOS USB installer. Generally you will need another Mac from:
You can confirm compatibility by using the information in this article:
https://eshop.macsales.com/guides/Mac_OS_X_Compatibility
Of course, if the old SSD still works, you could boot the Air with the old SSD and create a bootable macOS USB installer.
Try booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to attempt to access the online macOS 12.x Monterey installer. If you installed a third party SSD internally, then macOS 10.12 Sierra will not be able to even see the third party SSD since it does not have the necessary drivers to work with an NVMe SSD.
Unfortunately some Macs may only boot to the older online macOS installer which originally shipped with the Mac from the factory.....which in your case using a third party internal NVMe SSD will not work. You could remove the new SSD and connect it externally to install Sierra, then upgrade to a later OS while the SSD is still connected externally (should be able to install at least High Sierra, but should be able to install Big Sur...not sure about the Monterey installer since it added some other restrictions). After upgrading to at least macOS 10.13+, then you can reinstall the new SSD internally & it should boot to the internal SSD.
Otherwise, you will need access to another Mac that is compatible with an OS that this 2017 Air can run (macOS 10.13 - 12.x) so that you can create a bootable macOS USB installer. Generally you will need another Mac from:
You can confirm compatibility by using the information in this article:
https://eshop.macsales.com/guides/Mac_OS_X_Compatibility
Of course, if the old SSD still works, you could boot the Air with the old SSD and create a bootable macOS USB installer.
Thanks for the reply. An attempt I made with the previous hard drive before it crashed was able to download Sierra from Apple servers soI am assuming (hoping) that is still true if I can get past No Bag Entry message.
By the way I reviewed this thread but its unclear to me... "No bag entry" error when trying to resto… - Apple Community
As I understand it, some older operating systems such as Sierra are no longer available on Apple's server.
New Hard Drive - No Bag error
