El Capitan on Early 2009 MBP and other stuff

[MacBrad]

Hi, thank you for taking the time to read this post. I have a project going on right now. I've owned Macs for decades, but haven't been really up to date the past few years.
I've got an early 2009 MacBook Pro, 17" with 8gb RAM. I recently bought an OWC SSD (259gb) with external drive enclosure. I will be installing the SSD and swapping the old HD to the external enclosure. Currently, the SSD is in the enclosure, I have initialized it for my Mac with Disk Utility. The questions are:

1. The installer won't allow El Capitan to be installed to the SSD. It gives me an error since no OS is currently installed on it. I don't want to update the original drive, how can I do this simply?
2. The computer originally belonged to my brother, I would like to have my own login/pw, it also has an icloud account, can I still have access to the online back-uo, and set up my own account?
Thank you for your time and knowledge.

 

[ferrarr]

I don't know what Disk Tools is, so I would recommend using Disk Utility, to erase and format the SSD. In order to install El Capitan to the external, did you create a bootable USB installer for El Capitan?

How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

 

[MacBrad]

Thank you, and sorry for the confusion, I have corrected above.I used Disk Utility. Is there a way to directly install it to the new drive as bootable (external-in enclosure), then swap it with the existing internal drive so that the new drive will be my bootable drive, the old drive for back-up/storage?

 

[ferrarr]

You could also clone your internal HDD drive onto the SSD, provided there is enough storage on the SSD to handle all the used data space on the internal HDD? We recommend Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC), Mac Backup Software | Carbon Copy Cloner | Bombich Software.

 

[MacBrad]

Rather than cloning the old drive, I would prefer to have the drive clean and add things to it. I'd like the old drive to remain bootable. This would be for older software and basically just a storage bin I can sort through at my leisure to dispose of unneeded files. The new drive is for speed and newer things, as well as for a newer drive for longevity. This was bought as remanufactured in about 2012, I believe, from OWC.
Being a 17" this has essentially become a desktop for me. I'll use it mostly for writing, internet and photo/video. I've been using a Chromebook (cheap, durable, relarively light) for travel, but that is mostly being replaced by an iPad with a keyboard case.

 

[pm-r]

1. The installer won't allow El Capitan to be installed to the SSD. ...
2. The computer originally belonged to my brother, I would like to have my own login/pw, ...

To make things easier for you and to keep a bootable backup I would do as Bob suggests and to create a clone using CCC.

When logged into your brother's account, you can set up your own new clean boot section as an admin user, then log out and log into your new user account or you can delete your brother's account and all other unnecessary software.

You may not even have any choice considering Mac OS El Capitan won't even let you install it the way you are going about it at this point. Why bother creating extra work when you can do it so easily as suggested above. You'll end up with a same thing.


- Patrick
======

 

[krs]

Rather than cloning the old drive, I would prefer to have the drive clean and add things to it. I'd like the old drive to remain bootable.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I see no reason why you can't install ElCapitan directly on the external drive.

My Mini is currently running ElCapitan on the internal drive and I used it to do a clean install of Mojave (for test purposes) directly on an external USB3 drive.

In your first post you said:

The installer won't allow El Capitan to be installed to the SSD. It gives me an error since no OS is currently installed on it.

What installer do you have?
It sounds it is just an upissue of ElCapitan if it 'thinks' you need an existing OS for it to run.

 

[ferrarr]

What OS version is on the MBP currently?

 

[MacBrad]

The installer is downloaded from Apple. "Install MacOSX.dmg" I open that and it mounts "InstallMacOSX.pkg". When I open that, I get the installer. When I get to destination, and I select my formatted SSD, I get the error: "OS X can't be installed on this disk. Mac OS X isn't installed."
I am currently running 10.7.5
Can I use the terminal as if I were making an emergency boot disk using the SSD? Do you think that this would work. Then I will do the drive swap, and have the old system on the old drive, and the new system on the new drive. If I choose to I could then use the old drive as just an external drive, or boot to the old OS if I choose?
Thank you.

 

[MBAmtloin]

can we use a time machine back up on a OtherWorldComp. fresh ssd?

what i did on a macbook air 2010 was install the new ssd, plugged in the snow leopard usb, started while pressing option and the computer read the usb were that instructed me to install the OSX.

 

[MacBrad]

So, I guess that the best choice would be to create a bootable thumb drive, install the new drive, use the thumb drive to boot then install the new OS on the new drive while installed in the MBP? It seems like I should be able to cut that extra step, but if I must, then I will. But it seems if I need to use the Terminal to install on the thumb drive, I should be able to do the same with the SSD as an external drive, then swap. Then I don't need to install twice?
Or maybe I could use the old drive externally to boot, then install to the new drive in the Mac?

 

[pm-r]

But it seems if I need to use the Terminal to install on the thumb drive, I should be able to do the same with the SSD as an external drive, then swap. Then I don't need to install twice?
Or maybe I could use the old drive externally to boot, then install to the new drive in the Mac?

Why do you seem to be so adverse or against using Carbon Copy Cloner.app and creating a bootable clone???

You could have been done and finished by now, with yourself as a new admin user and all cleaned up...

Just curious...


- Patrick
======

 

[MacBrad]

Because I don't want to upgrade the original HD to El Capitan, and I don't want Lion on my new drive. The other thing is that the new drive is 250gb, the old one is 320gb.

 

[MBAmtloin]

anytime i needed to make a bootable thumb drive, this source was the easiest and very thorough- osx daily saved my bacon many times!

 

[krs]

Why do you seem to be so adverse or against using Carbon Copy Cloner.app and creating a bootable clone???

Patrick - I don't understand how that is going to help.

MacBrad wants a clean install of macOS 10.11 on the external.
With CCC all he can do is make a bootable clone of macOS 10.7.5
He can then upgrade that to macOS 10.11 but it won't be a clean install of the macOS

As far as the downloaded file from Apple "Install MacOSX.dmg" is concerned - is that actually what one would expect to show up when downloading El Capitan?

PS: I just did a quick download of El Capitan from the Apple store again to check that - the complete El Capitan installer is 6.22 GB and there should be an application in your application folder called "Install OS X El Capitan" showing that size and when you open that you should see this:

 

[krs]

So, I guess that the best choice would be to create a bootable thumb drive, install the new drive, use the thumb drive to boot then install the new OS on the new drive while installed in the MBP?

Seems to me you have the wrong installer.

After I downloaded the macOS 10.11 installer per my previous post, you should be able to install on the external drive directly, no need to make a bootable thumb drive unless you want to install El Capitan on another Mac and don't want to have to download the OS again.

- - - Updated - - -

So, I guess that the best choice would be to create a bootable thumb drive, install the new drive, use the thumb drive to boot then install the new OS on the new drive while installed in the MBP?

Seems to me you have the wrong installer.

After I downloaded the macOS 10.11 installer per my previous post, you should be able to install on the external drive directly, no need to make a bootable thumb drive unless you want to install El Capitan on another Mac and don't want to have to download the OS again.

 

[krs]

anytime i needed to make a bootable thumb drive, this source was the easiest and very thorough- osx daily saved my bacon many times!

There is really no need to go the terminal route.

I used Disk Creator to make a bootable thumb drive - it's free and does everything for you.

There is also DiskMaker X which some prefer, also free but for me it needed to run in an admin session so I used Disk Creator instead.
Works fine.

 

[MacBrad]

krs, wow, you're fast. And thank you for getting it and doing all of that. When I downloaded from Apple, a file called "Install MacOSX.dmg" file ended up in my "Downloads" folder. I open that and it mounts "InstallMacOSX.pkg". When I open that, I get an installer, but it doesn't look like yours. I moved it to my Applications folder and tried again with the same result. The file is 6.2gb. When I click it gives the standard install window and states that the package will run a program to determine compatibility. When asking for destination, it shows my internal HD, my external SSD and the installer file itself. The installer steps stall at the second step stating that the SSD can't be installed to because it doesn't have OSX installed. It will allow me to install over Lion and doesn't even see the formatted USB Thumb Drive.
I don't know, maybe I need to re-download it and make sure it ends up in the "Applications" folder?

 

[MacBrad]

Oh, thank you, I saw your last response after I posted #18. When I create a bootable drive, does it have all of the software of a normal install, or is it stripped down to the essentials just to get running?

I may just have a variation of the installer which doesn't allow the other drive as a destination?
Could you post the link for the version you downloaded?
Thank you!

 

[krs]

krs, wow, you're fast. And thank you for getting it and doing all of that. When I downloaded from Apple, a file called "Install MacOSX.dmg" file ended up in my "Downloads" folder. I open that and it mounts "InstallMacOSX.pkg". When I open that, I get an installer, but it doesn't look like yours. I moved it to my Applications folder and tried again with the same result. The file is 6.2gb. When I click it gives the standard install window and states that the package will run a program to determine compatibility. When asking for destination, it shows my internal HD, my external SSD and the installer file itself. The installer steps stall at the second step stating that the SSD can't be installed to because it doesn't have OSX installed. It will allow me to install over Lion and doesn't even see the formatted USB Thumb Drive.
I don't know, maybe I need to re-download it and make sure it ends up in the "Applications" folder?

When you go to the app store and check under "purchased" - do you see a list of applications you downloaded over time?
There should be one called OS X El Capitan.

I don't really understand what you actually have and why it doesn't show which macOS it actually is.
All mine show OS X and then the name Apple gave that OS

And I think the download should end up in the Applications folder automatically, not the download folder