My Macbook only boots to internet recovery and doesnt install MacOS

[h0ru5]

I have a MacBook PRO early 2011 and i had it with High Sierra OS, as im going to sell it i tryed to revert to factory settings via recovery... the thing is that it shows an error and didint install it.

i made things worse by touching stuff on terminal following an online guide, the thing is that now the Mac only boots to internet recovery, and when i try to install MacOs lion (the only option i have in internet recovery) it shows an error and doesnt download.

i tryed to make an USB bootable from windows with Sierra OS but it doesnt see it (i used transmac because i dont have access to another mac to make it from there).

other thing that i dont understand is that when i use the disk utility to erase the disk it doesnt show "HFS extended journaled", just "macos plus case sensitive, encrypted", etc.

im truly desperate, i dont know what to do.

Sorry for my english.

 

[pigoo3]

If you purchased your Early 2011 MacBook Pro new (or used)...it should have come with 2 gray colored discs. If you have these...you can boot the computer with them & reinstall the OS to get things working again. Then install the newer macOS versionyou wish to install to sell the computer.

HTH,

- Nick

 

[ferrarr]

When you boot into Internet Recovery, you need to use Disk Utility. Then you need to make sure you choose View > Show all devices/partitions etc. Then select the internal drive and erase the drive. Then proceed to install Mac OS X Lion.

 

[h0ru5]

If you purchased your Early 2011 MacBook Pro new (or used)...it should have come with 2 gray colored discs. If you have these...you can boot the computer with them & reinstall the OS to get things working again. Then install the newer macOS versionyou wish to install to sell the computer.

HTH,

- Nick

it was used and i dont remember getting those, im going to look but i dont think a have them

When you boot into Internet Recovery, you need to use Disk Utility. Then you need to make sure you choose View > Show all devices/partitions etc. Then select the internal drive and erase the drive. Then proceed to install Mac OS X Lion.

I did that several times, but i think i messed up something in the drives, because the "macintosh HD" partition disapeared, so ive created it again, but when i try to erase the data i dont know what option to select, because "HFS extended journaled" is not present.

anyway whatever option i selected (like MacOS Plus, with registration) when i try to install lion it tries to download the file but a couple of minutes later i get the error message from the attached picture, it says something like "the files needed to install MacOS X cannot be downloaded"

im sorry the pictures are in spanish, its my language and i dont know how to change them to english.

Thanks for trying to help me, im loosing my mind.

 

[ferrarr]

No, select the "500.11 GB WDC WD5000B......" as that is the drive that needs to be completely erased/wiped. You want to make sure the Partition scheme is GUID, and that Mac OS Extended Journaled (HFS+) is the formatting.

 

[h0ru5]

No, select the "500.11 GB WDC WD5000B......" as that is the drive that needs to be completely erased/wiped. You want to make sure the Partition scheme is GUID, and that Mac OS Extended Journaled (HFS+) is the formatting.

i just did that, is on guid, and the formated only says MacOS Plus (con registro)... maybe thats the same thing?, is strange because is not an accurate traduction to spanish from Extended Journaled... but i think is close enough.

anyway, same result... 30 seconds after it started to "download" i get the same error "cannot download the aditional necesary components to install Mac OS X"

I have the Sierra.dmg on a pendrive that the Mac doesnt see as bootable, but it sees the image... is there a way to install it directly from the file with "terminal" or something instead of trying to download lion?

 

[h0ru5]

i managed to get the mac to recognize a bootable USB with lion in it, but befoe it start installing i get a "There was a problem installing Mac OS X. Try reinstalling". I tried with 2 different versions of lion (10.7.2 and 10.7.3)

 

[h0ru5]

well, i managed to get it back up, i downloaded mac os lion 10.7.5 and i used transmac software to make a bootable USB drive with lion 10.7.5.dmg inside from my Windows 10 machine.
Steps (on windows 10):
1- get MacOS Lion (in my case) 10.7.5 (not older, because if its older you wont be abble to update it to Sierra)
2- get transmac trial software (15 day trial)
3- open transmac as administrator
4- plug in USB drive (8GB or more)
5- on transmac locate the USB drive, click right mouse button and click "format disk for mac"
6-click "yes"
7-when it finishes formatting, click right mouse button again on the USB drive and click "restore with disk image"
8- search and select the Macos Lion.dmg file
9- click "yes" and wait until it finishes (it may take a while)

when i booted from the mac with the USB drive (push the power button on the mac and righ after push "cmd") it gave me another error and refused to install... after a lot of searching i found that reseting NVRAM may help, so it did (turn on the mac holding option (alt)+cmd+P+R), and after a long install process i was on MacOS Lion, and from there i updated to Sierra, and after that High Sierra.

Thanks to all for trying to help me and i hope my experience can help someone in the future.

Sorry for my english

 

[ferrarr]

That's great news. And thanks for putting your solution here for others to gain knowledge as well.

 

[pm-r]

That's great news. And thanks for putting your solution here for others to gain knowledge as well.

+1!! But that is assuming that it actually works for other users as well.

Apple really does need to improve its OS install methods and no user should not have to jump through so many hoops and steps to get a working operating system installed that actually works properly.

Not even their Mac OS COMBO Updates don't work all the time (recent personal experience again), even when the stated System Requirements have been met.

No, too many things don't just work anymore!!! It seems those days have long passed us by.




- Patrick
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[chscag]

No, too many things don't just work anymore!!! It seems those days have long passed us by.

LOL. I almost replied to that with a snarky remark but thought better of it. I'll leave it to your imagination Patrick.

And by the way, I also represent that remark.

 

[pm-r]

LOL. I almost replied to that with a snarky remark but thought better of it. I'll leave it to your imagination Patrick.

And by the way, I also represent that remark.

OK, now that you mentioned the facts...

BTW: It WAS Apple who created and used the "it just works" expression wasn't it. But then again, I think that was also several years ago...





- Patrick
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