OS X could not be installed on your computer??? (El Captain)

[voot566]

I received a Mac Mini 2009 from my friend in summer, and the Mac was fully functional with OSX 10.9 on it. I decided to replace the HDD with an Samsung 500GB SSD (Brand New). Then I install OSX El Captain through USB on it, in accordance to "

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

You can use a USB flash drive or other secondary volume as a startup disk from which to install the Mac operating system. These steps are primarily for system administrators and other experienced users.

support.apple.com

". The installation was successful without any issue, and the Mac Mini is working perfectly fine until mid-October. All update was done.

In October, I attempted to install MacOS Catalina through "macOS Catalina Patcher" but no success (by both upgrade and clean install). Error was the recovery cannot mount the AFPS partition after formatting. I also attempted to format the SSD into AFPS through my Macbook Pro 2013 Late first, and put the SSD back into the Mac Mini but still cannot mount. Therefore I gave up.

Therefore, I want to install MacOS El Captain again. The OSX image is downloaded through the app store in my iMac 2008, and the USB installation drive was also created successfully. However, the install process could not be completed, and it shows the error of "OS X could not be installed on your computer"



For this reason, I tried the following methods (SSD has been wiped before, with no partition on it):
1. Create a MacOS Yosimite USB, and install the OSX 10.10 (success without any error and the OS is fully functional). Complete all the update from app store first, then attempted to update the OSX into 10.11 through app store. However, get the same error "OS X could not be installed on your computer"

2. Restore the Factory image of OSX10.9 from my macbook pro 2013 (success and 10.9 is fully functional). COmplete all updates from app store also, then update into 10.11. However, get the same error message.

3. Put the original HDD come with this Mac Mini and attempt method 1 and 2, also USB clean install. Still get same error message

4. Completed system diagnostic for both the SSD and HDD, both devices are perfectly good.

5. Install Windows 7 into the SSD on the Mac Mini, success.

6. take both HDD and SSD out, and attempt to install El Capitan on both of it through my Macbook and iMac. But still get the same error.............



I am pretty sure my Mac Mini doesnt have any hardware issue, the HDD and SSD either. I am also pretty sure that the MacOS image is good.
CMOS battery has been replaced + NVram and SMC has been reset. Time on the Mac Mini is correct which matching EST Time USA


Any ideas? I have uploaded two logs for USB install and OSX upgrade

 

[now i see it]

I suspect Catalina hosed the drive with a secret partition that the older installers can't recognize. Older installers won't be able to wipe the disk of it either (my guess).
My guess is it's time to buy another SSD or go back to Catalina. Gotta wonder why on earth you even considered installing Catalina on a 2009 mini. Guaranteed miserable experience.

 

[voot566]

Installing "Catalina" is just for fun and I never plan to use it.......
In fact, I share the similar thought as you believing that is the partitioning issue
However, I have taking out the Samsung SSD and wipe it through EaseUS Partition Master in windows. Also, I have also place a brand new HDD on it. Both solution doesnt work......... so I believe it should not be any issue relating to hidden partition.
As I mentioned in my original post, where I have attempted to install 10.4 on that SSD and HDD through my iMac 2008, but it also failed. I am doubting whether the recent 10.4 DMG file provided by apple is damaged.....

 

[weckart]

Installing "Catalina" is just for fun and I never plan to use it.......
In fact, I share the similar thought as you believing that is the partitioning issue
However, I have taking out the Samsung SSD and wipe it through EaseUS Partition Master in windows. Also, I have also place a brand new HDD on it. Both solution doesnt work......... so I believe it should not be any issue relating to hidden partition.
As I mentioned in my original post, where I have attempted to install 10.4 on that SSD and HDD through my iMac 2008, but it also failed. I am doubting whether the recent 10.4 DMG file provided by apple is damaged.....

I installed Catalina on a 2009 Mac Mini recently using a low rent Gigabyte dramless SSD and it runs fine. Unlike you, I didn't create an APFS volume. I just installed it to a HFS+ volume and let Catalina do the conversion. So far, it is far from a "miserable experience" and is quite usable. It dual boots with Snow Leopard but due to the nature of an unsupported OS, you cannot set Catalina from Startup Disk in SysPrefs and have to use the boot selector screen to get it to boot as the Mini otherwise defaults to Snow Leopard.

 

[voot566]

Problem solved
just change the time of the Mac to the time, where Apple has created the Installer.
For example, if the DMG you downloaded from App store is uploaded by Apple in June 2018, then just changed the time of your Mac to June 2017