Q: downgrade from capitan to mavericks

Did your Mac come with Mavericks or earlier? You can't boot a version of OSX earlier than what it came with.

Hi leopard007,

- While booting from external drive -  Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up - Apple Support

- After boot to safe mode, reboot back to normal.

hope this helps

cheers, dwbrecovery

It came with Lion so that's not the problem. Did you actually install Mavericks onto your extenal drive or just copy the installer to it?

TransMac is a program that allows Windows machines to read Mac files. It has nothing to do with installing software.

You need to run the Mavericks installer from your internal drive and choose the external drive to install it on.

FWIW, there is no legitimate OSX installer available from anywhere other than the App Store. There is also no way to know if it's corrupt or tampered with.

If you have Mavericks listed in your Purchased tab in the App Store you can download it from there. Otherwise you can't install Mavericks.

You're welcome.

Without better build year product identification (give serial number to

an AppleCare or Sales product expert, by phone at main Apple Store

online; they can look in the database) or use Serial Number Lookup

to see if an independent database that shows build year info and

as-shipped details. Or look into any original packing materials to see

what it says your MacBook Pro shipped with, then you'd know.

• OS X versions and builds included with Mac computers - Apple Support

This computer has been in production from Mid 2012, so it could have been

shipped with any one of the listed OS X system version builds listed above.

~ And may have shipped with Mavericks 10.9.x if that was available & in stock

installed in 13-inch MB/ Pro (non-retina) & would not have restore DVD media.

• Mac Serial Number Info - Lookup your Apple Serial Number:

https://www.powerbookmedic.com/identify-mac-serial.php

• About OS X Recovery - Apple Support

{If the computer shipped with Mavericks, that would be the default system to

retrieve from the Mac App Store and your original system purchase. The unit

should be able to use Internet Recovery (see OS X Recovery) to get whatever

OS X the unit shipped with. Earliest models did not include Internet Recovery.

• OS X: About Recovery Disk Assistant - Apple Support

A later upgrade in OS X added 'recovery partition' to Mac added that feature.}

The use of recovery to (try & get) the as-shipped original OS X by using

OS X Recovery is foretold in this article: •How to reinstall OS X - Apple Support

And this is associated with:

What to do before selling or giving away your Mac - Apple Support

Your computer would be one of these order numbers: Narrow down field of

possible as-shipped OS X version by use of Serial Number [lookup] or call the

AppleCare or Sales support at main Apple online; with SN info, they can tell you.

Introduced    June 2012

Discontinued    --

Model Identifier    MacBookPro9,2

Model Number    A1278

EMC    2554

(Sales) Order Number    MD101LL/A (2.5 GHz), MD102LL/A (2.9 GHz)

{A First edition of this model shipped with Mac OS X 10.7.4 (11E2617)

& most recent production edition shipped with OS X 10.11 El Capitan}

• Apple OS X and Time Machine Tips:

http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

(With adequate repository of backup and Time Machine archives, to

revert to an older supported system should be possible. There have

been known instances where certain 'upgrades to firmware' made a

reversion to previous old system almost impossible.)

While you'd hope the Mac App Store (purchases) would show the incident

of your acquiring a download of Mavericks -- if the MacBook Pro or other

Mac computer product shipped with Mavericks, its unlikely to appear there.

(My Mac Mini shipped with Mavericks OS X 10.9.0; it's not in Purchases;

and it hasn't been upgraded past 10.9.5. But I downloaded 10.11 Installer.)

In any event...

Good luck & happy computing!

FWIW, he wants to install Mavericks on an external drive. Which as far as I know can't be done using Internet Recovery. I could be wrong, it happens.

You can also install create a bootable OS X installer in OS X Mavericks or OS X Yosemite (el capitan)

also install an OS X on a different drive than the one running the computer. My Mac Mini (server)

shipped with two internal 1-TB HDDs, so with partitions, several options arise. Externally as well.

Once you get the installer DiskMakerX can 'create bootable installer' easier than the Support article:

http://diskmakerx.com/whats-this/

Use the utilities on OS X Recovery; or see if Internet Recovery is available/desired; you should be

able to install a new OS X on a different partition or prepared hard drive, with the running Mac;

and not have it disturb the system it is running from. Just these new hoops w/ reliance on internet

makes the methodology more clumsy. Especially if you haven't the bandwidth, or have ceilings.

• OS X: About Recovery Disk Assistant - Apple Support

Reinstall OS X*: Download and reinstall OS X on your startup disk.

OS X Recovery (Command-R) installs the version of OS X that was last installed on your Mac.

OS X Internet Recovery (Option-Command-R) installs the version that originally came with your Mac.

{Some model series had versions that did not ship with newer OS X, so the Internet Recovery option

had to be added to those who could support it.}

Although I hear what you mean, the time is now approaching 3AM in my location & its past sleeptime..!