I am unable to reinstall macOS Monterey on to my MacBook.
Elder millennial. I wipe my laptop and do a fresh install of the operating system every few years. It's probably been about four years since I've done it on my 2016 Pro.
I restarted in Recovery and used Disk Utility to erase my Mac (like this). When I tried to Reinstall macOS, I got a SMART error (my computer was working perfectly fine before this, just a little slow, hence the fresh install).
So I rebooted my computer into Internet Recovery, and I can't reinstall High Sierra from there because "The recovery server could not be contacted" This is the error I get when trying to install--I can accept the agreement but then it can't download the os I'm guessing? Which is weird because I could use my other laptop on the same wifi to download the Monterey installer.
When I got stuck not being able to download the OS via Internet Recovery, I created a bootable installer (like this). I downloaded Monterey from the App Store on my 2015 Air also running Monterey and followed the instructions. However, I cannot actually *use* this bootable installer. I connect the installer and boot up the computer from shut down, press option to get into Recovery mode. Select "Use the attached installer," press continue, accept the license, and get... "This disk has SMART errors."
Right now I'm trying to start the installer from the bootable drive using Terminal. I found a few older posts that seemed relevant here and here but I can't seem to put it all together and locate the file startosinstall within the application.
From this post:
/Install\ macOS\ --agreetolicense --volume /Volumes/Macintosh\ HDMonterey.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall
Terminal response:
/Install macOS Monterey.app/Contents/startosinstall: No such file or directory
I'm kind of lost now. I really don't want to go into the Apple Store for this, and I feel like I just need to find out how to reinstall (any) operating system. Would appreciate some guidance on my approach using Terminal and creating the bootable installer, and any other advice that may be pertinent! I can do basic stuff with Terminal but that's about it so I am not sure if my syntax is correct and/or where the files I am looking for are. I am not even sure if the files I need are in the installer I made (even though Apple's page says to download from the App Store). Some other stuff I read made me think the file may not be in there. How can I check? Am I making this too complicated?
when trying to install from the bootable installer:
[Re-Titled By Moderator]
MacBook Pro 13″