How to find an old Sierra installer and get it on an USB drive

[ayres]

Aloha all, I have a probably-easily-solved issue, but I need a little direction. I received my girlfriend’s MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2012, i7, running El Cap). She’s treated it as a paperweight for a long time because the hd was erased in disc utility AND there doesn’t appear to have a bootable drive partitioned. (I don’t understand how it happened)

Upon turning on and loading for a few minutes, the following message is displayed:

“OS X could not be installed on your computer”

“No packages were eligible for install. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance. Quit the installer to restart your computer and try again”

So, my inclination is to either 1) boot from the internet... but that will install Catalina, which I prefer not to do.

Or 2) create a bootable thumb drive. Insert, restart, run it, and put on a (preferably older) OS.

But I’m having rookie problems pulling it off. For starters, I’m unsure how to acquire a copy of Sierra or High Sierra (figured I’d upgrade it slightly from El Cap). I believe I found the correct Sierra installer here on one of Apple’s support pages:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208202

That gets me an “InstallOS.dmg” 5gb file that I've downloaded onto my 2020 MacBook Air. Now I’m unsure how to get it onto a thumb drive. Don’t I need to run the package and then use terminal to put it on a thumb drive? If so, Catalina on my 2020 mba won’t let me run it.

So can anyone give me some pointers on where to go from here? I appreciate any help I can get.

 

[Fishrrman]

Do you have another Mac available to you from which you can download things?
If so, try this:

You can download the Low Sierra (10.12) installer here:

http://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2019/cert/061-39476-20191023-48f365f4-0015-4c41-9f44-39d3d2aca067/InstallOS.dmg

The installer will usually end up in the applications folder. If not there, in the downloads folder or on the desktop.

Next, you need a free 3rd party app with which to create a bootable USB flash drive:
DiskMaker X. MAKE SURE you download the correct version to create a Low Sierra installer.
The URL:

Downloads

diskmakerx.com

Use a USB flashdrive 16gb or larger.
Use disk utility to pre-erase it to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format.

Then, launch DiskMaker X and just "click through" with a few clicks of the mouse.

Now, connect it to the 2012 MBP and reboot.
Hold down the OPTION key CONTINUOUSLY until the startup manager appears.
Then select the flashdrive with the pointer and hit return.

Do you get a boot to the flashdrive?
If so, that's good, but before you do anything else...
... if the flashdrive "opens to the installer", QUIT the installer for the moment.

Open disk utility and ERASE the internal drive once more (again, to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format).

When this is done, quit disk utility and reopen the OS installer.
Be aware that during the install the MBP may reboot one or more times, the screen may just "go black" for several minutes, and you may see the progress bar more than one time.

Good luck.

 

[ayres]

Thanks for the thorough response! Much of what you wrote jives with what I already learned, so it makes sense.

I'm trying it now, and will post my results soon. But just to clarify, when I download the Low Sierra installer onto my 2020 MacBook Air running Catalina, and I double click the dmg to run the package, it won't let me. So it won't appear in my applications.

anyway, more soon.

Do you have another Mac available to you from which you can download things?
If so, try this:

...

Good luck.

 

[ayres]

@Fishrrman

Hi again. thanks for the Diskmaker recommendation. Following your instructions, the encountered the same issue I already had. I download the installOS.dmg, and when I try to run the package to create the installer application, it won't let me. And Diskmaker won't detect the dmg.

So to rephrase my original post: I can't use a dmg, correct? I first have to run it to create the installer. But Catalina won't let me run it. So what other options do I have?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP --

OK, I downloaded the Sierra installer from above, and I now see that it isn't "assembled" in the way Apple installers usually are.

It wouldn't work with DiskMaker -- disappointing.

Again I'm going to ask you, and please take the time to answer:
What OTHER Macs do you have available to you?
and
What versions of the OS are those Macs running?

Please list EVERY one.
If you do, I'll try to offer alternative courses of action.

There's almost always "another way to get things done"...

 

[CoastalOR]

OP, be aware that even when you get the "Install macOS Sierra" app you will have problems making the Sierra USB installer.

Take a look at this thread that started talking about making a USB installer for El Capitan, then the thread wandered to discussing making USB installers for other OS after the Certificate expiration on 24 Oct 2019. Pay particular attention to posts about Sierra. There is a bug:

"not a valid volume mount point" Can't make bootable drive

I have downloaded El Capitan and have formatted my 8gb usb drive and have partitioned and have typed the command in terminal and every single time I get the error message "Untitled is not a valid volume mount point". My drive is titled Untitled so it isn't any problem with that syntax to my...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[chrfr]

So, my inclination is to either 1) boot from the internet... but that will install Catalina, which I prefer not to do.

Here's a rather complicated workaround.
Computers like the 2012 MacBook Pro which support internet recovery will be able to reinstall their original operating system from internet recovery, as long as they've had macOS 10.12.4 or later installed. That OS (and later ones) will update the firmware to enable this.
So, use internet recovery and install Catalina. Once that's done, you can follow the steps in this document: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904
This will then likely install macOS Lion on the computer, at which point you can download one of the other installers like Sierra and then upgrade.
I don't recommend using Sierra because it's out of support with Apple and has known security vulnerabilities. High Sierra will work fine and won't be any slower.
If you were to put an SSD in the computer, even Catalina would be fine on it.

 

[ayres]

I recently sold my 2015 MBA running Mojave. Now I have only the 2020 MBA running Catalina. That said... A friend of mine has an old MBA, and knowing how lazy he is, I bet it's running an older OS. I'll ask.

Needless to say, this is all very ridiculous.

OP --

OK, I downloaded the Sierra installer from above, and I now see that it isn't "assembled" in the way Apple installers usually are.

It wouldn't work with DiskMaker -- disappointing.

Again I'm going to ask you, and please take the time to answer:
What OTHER Macs do you have available to you?
and
What versions of the OS are those Macs running?

Please list EVERY one.
If you do, I'll try to offer alternative courses of action.

There's almost always "another way to get things done"...

 

[Fishrrman]

"A friend of mine has an old MBA, and knowing how lazy he is, I bet it's running an older OS. I'll ask"

Find out which version of the OS he has running.
Also, find out WHAT YEAR the MBA was made (that affects which version of the OS can be used with it).

What I think you could do:
- Either use the version of the OS that's on there now, or create a bootable USB installer using HIS Mac
- You will need an external USB drive. Install a completely clean copy of the OS onto the external drive. Get it set with a basic account so you can get to the finder. Test this on your friend's MBA first to be sure it's bootable, then...
- See if you can connect this external drive (with a working OS) to YOUR 2012 MacBook Pro and boot from it.
- If you CAN get booted... use disk utility to erase the internal drive on the 2012 MBP. Then, use CarbonCopyCloner (free to download and use for 30 days) to "clone over" the working OS from the external drive to the MBP's internal drive.

No promises that this will work.
But it's definitely worth trying.
"Go with ANY way that works..."