putting old OS on new drive

[zimv20]

i have a late 2012 mac mini whose drive has died.

i've ordered this Crucial SSD as a replacement:

Memory RAM & SSD Upgrades | Crucial.com

Crucial Memory and SSD upgrades - 100% Compatibility Guaranteed for - FREE US Delivery.

www.crucial.com

once installed, i need to get El Cap on there for some backwards compatibility. if i were to boot up with cmd-R and go to reinstall OSX, will i still get offered Lion (the original OS) like i do at the moment?

i.e. is the bit offering me that on the drive i'm going to yank out, or somewhere else?

 

[DeltaMac]

A Late 2012 mini originally came with Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8.1), so if you are offered Lion, then it's not a 2012, but a 2011, (the only mini that shipped with Lion)
But, you don't want Lion, so if you want El Capitan, you can download that by using the link that Apple provides in this article:

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

That same article also provides the steps you can use to make a bootable USB installer for your downloaded system installer...

 

[zimv20]

thanks for the link.

tbh, i don't recall which version of OSX "Lion" it was. the part no. is MD388LL/A, which i believe to be late 2012.
(i hope i got the right drive)

this describes my mini:

 

[DeltaMac]

That would be Mountain Lion, then...
But, the steps to get El Capitan downloaded and installed would be the same, either way.

 

[zimv20]

That would be Mountain Lion, then...

i have confirmed it is Mountain Lion. looks like i ordered the right drive.