Can I still download and make a bootable copy of El Capitan?

[danakm]

I'm sure I had a copy, but I must have misplaced it and lost it somehow, and now I need to do a fresh install on my ancient mid-2009 MBP and I'm not sure how to proceed.

Any help is BEYOND appreciated

 

[DeltaMac]

The mid-2009 MBPro is limited to El Capitan, so Apple has a support page that takes you to a download link for the El Capitan installer app. Scroll part way down that page, where you will find the link "Get OS X El Capitan"

But --- before you do that, if you already downloaded El Capitan, to upgrade your old MBPro, then that link might still be in your App Store/Purchased tab, where you could simply click on Download.
Either way, the installer app will download to your Applications folder. It will automatically launch when the download is complete, so just quit the installer at that time. Copy the app to another drive, where you can keep that if you need it again. Use the app to create a bootable installer, either on its own partition on an external drive - or even better make your bootable on a USB flash drive. Apple has "easy-to-follow" instructions for doing that in the terminal. Or, use one of the dedicated apps that makes that simple, such as DiskmakerX.

 

[danakm]

The mid-2009 MBPro is limited to El Capitan, so Apple has a support page that takes you to a download link for the El Capitan installer app. Scroll part way down that page, where you will find the link "Get OS X El Capitan"

But --- before you do that, if you already downloaded El Capitan, to upgrade your old MBPro, then that link might still be in your App Store/Purchased tab, where you could simply click on Download.
Either way, the installer app will download to your Applications folder. It will automatically launch when the download is complete, so just quit the installer at that time. Copy the app to another drive, where you can keep that if you need it again. Use the app to create a bootable installer, either on its own partition on an external drive - or even better make your bootable on a USB flash drive. Apple has "easy-to-follow" instructions for doing that in the terminal. Or, use one of the dedicated apps that makes that simple, such as DiskmakerX.

Thank you! I was afraid since my mac is now officially vintage that my options had expired! I'm on it now

 

[nad8e]

The mid-2009 MBPro is limited to El Capitan, so Apple has a support page that takes you to a download link for the El Capitan installer app. Scroll part way down that page, where you will find the link "Get OS X El Capitan"

Here's the problem I run into... Can't make a recovery disk because my 2017 MBP won't let me download El Capitan to restore my 2009 MBP.
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I'm sure I had a copy, but I must have misplaced it and lost it somehow, and now I need to do a fresh install on my ancient mid-2009 MBP and I'm not sure how to proceed.

Any help is BEYOND appreciated

Exact same boat. I was trying to do a reinstall of El Capitan. For some reason the Recovery Utility didn't go well and I can't boot because of a kernel panic.

And I can't create a bootable USB recovery disk on my 2017 MBP because High Sierra. Frustrating state.

Will an Apple Store help me out at all? It wouldn't be an issue is Apple would just let me download the El Capitan from the App Store!

 

[nad8e]

Ahh I guess for future searchers:

Scenario: 2009 MBP that will only upgrade to El Capitan. Wanted to wipe and reinstall but I wanted to partition off 50gb for Kali Linux. In the partition, I lost the Recovery drive on the SSD and then the virtual drive in memory was lost when the system crashed.

Solution: Only want to get El Capitan was to pirate it (newsgroups). Technically I previously purchased it but my machine won't let me DL an old version of OS X from the app store.
The El Capitan install was 5.8Ggb so i formatted an 8gb and then used a wild command:

$ sudo Mac\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan\ 10.11.4\ \(15E65\)\ Installer/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled/ --applicationpath Mac\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan\ 10.11.4\ \(15E65\)\ Installer/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app​

Rebooted the 2009 MBP holding down the Option keys.... I see my corrupted SSD.
Plugged in the memory stick and wham! There is the Recovery Drive for me to install from.

Easy fix for a daunting problem.