HD Locked When Trying to Install El Capitan

[landtoy80]

I have a late 2008 Mac Book. I had El Capitan installed and removed it last year.
I tried to install it again and got an message saying "HD is locked". I had to reinstall Yosemite from Time Machine.

Searched and see there are others with same problem. Should I try again installing from APP store again? How do I unlock the HD, I didn't lock it myself? Now that I am back to Yosemite, how can I tell if the HD is locked? Should I just leave on Yosemite and try later or just leave it till I have to buy new Mac?

IF I do a clean install will I run into the same problem with Locked HD? Its not too big of a deal for me to do a clean install other than getting a required update after installing one of the OS (don't remember which one but had to find a workaround to get it installed, hopefully I can find that workaround again).

Is there a good reason to upgrade to El Capitan from Yosemite? I had it for a short time, something ran slowly so I went back to Yosemite and haven't had any problems. Will upgrading buy me some more time till I have to buy new Mac or will Apple keep updating Yosemite for next few years?

 

[ferrarr]

Check to see if FileVault is turned on. Go into System Preferences > Security & Privacy, click on the FileVault tab. If it is turned on, turn it off. Please make sure you have a good backup of your important data. Which, I am assuming you do, since you just restored from Time Machine.

 

[landtoy80]

FileVault was not turned on.

 

[ferrarr]

Ok, do you have Install Mac OS El Capitan in your Applications folder? I would recommend creating a bootable El Capitan USB installer. It will require an 8gb flash drive. After you create, you can restart your MBP and hold Option to get to the boot manager which will show any connected drive which your Mac will boot from. Select the El Capitan USB, and go into Disk Utility. You will want to erase the entire disk drive and not just the Macintosh HD partition. After it completes, go back to the installer screen and install El Capitan.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

 

[chscag]

Is there a good reason to upgrade to El Capitan from Yosemite? I had it for a short time, something ran slowly so I went back to Yosemite and haven't had any problems. Will upgrading buy me some more time till I have to buy new Mac or will Apple keep updating Yosemite for next few years?

Apple is no longer updating Yosemite. They are, however, still providing security for it but that may end in the near future. If Yosemite is running OK on your system, leave it alone. When you buy a new Mac it will have the latest version of macOS on it.

 

[landtoy80]

If I erase disk, wont I have to install all the other required operating systems like I did when I did clean install of Yosemite?

 

[landtoy80]

Time Machine Wont Backup, Bad external HD?

I have been doing backups once or twice a month. I could see the backups. After a failed attempt of installing El Capitan, I had to use Time Machine to get back to Yosemite. Problem is Time Machine says my last backup was Oct 2016.

Now when I try to back up I get


Do I have a bad HD or other problem?

 

[chscag]

Merged your threads together as they are related.

Try right clicking on the Time Machine external drive, choose "get info", and check permissions. The system must have read and write permissions. Notice that the error above clearly states that your Time Machine is read only.

 

[landtoy80]

Going to do a clean install of El Capitan and then going to wipe the external HD clean and check for errors.

I backed everything I want to save to DVD so I can wipe both the HD and the MacBook clean.

 

[landtoy80]

I got Snow Leopard installed. I have a bootable flash drive. l disk with El Capitan on it.
I have a choice of installing: Upgrade Install and Clean Install. With Clean Install, I have two choices; Clean Install on Empty Volume and Clean Install on Startup Volume.
I assume that I only can use the Upgrade Install as (i assume again) that both Clean Installs will wipe Snow Leopard from my HD and I need Snow Leopard to get the old 2008 MacBook to have App Store on it. Am I correct?
If so, then having a flash drive with El Capitan will do me no good being I have an older machine that needs Snow Leopard?