Issues With Erasing Volume and Getting High Sierra Installed after SDD Upgrade on a Late 2011 MacBook Pro

[pika1126]

OP wrote:
"I'll have to make a bootable USB Drive on my Windows computer"

This is next-to-impossible.
It CAN be done (I have read), but for practical purposes, you need ANOTHER MAC to create a bootable USB flash drive.

Go ahead and try if you wish.
Just keep the above in mind.

There's another way to get a bootable USB flash drive:
There are ebay sellers who will sell you a bootable flash drive with a copy of the OS on it (your choice of the OS).
Will probably cost $20-25.

One last suggestion:
There is also a SPECIAL VERSION of internet recovery to try:
Command-SHIFT-OPTION-R

When you boot to this, the installer will offer you the original OS that the Mac shipped with (or the closest working version to it).

Give that a try.
And remember... when you boot to internet recovery, you MUST KEEP ALL THE KEYS PRESSED as the Mac boots, until you see the "spinning globe", or at least until it asks for your wifi password.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of folks forget to do this.

You can make one on Windows with Transmac. The thing is, I think my USB port was failing way before anything, because I tried to plug in my phone with a USB cable (before I erased the disks or anything), and it wasn't reading it. SO maybe I did format the USB stick correctly on Windows, but it's the actual MacBook Pro USB port... Oh really? I will try it that way and see what actually happens. I'll keep you posted here afterwards. Does that work for late MacBook Pro's 2011?

 

[pika1126]

OP wrote:
"I'll have to make a bootable USB Drive on my Windows computer"

This is next-to-impossible.
It CAN be done (I have read), but for practical purposes, you need ANOTHER MAC to create a bootable USB flash drive.

Go ahead and try if you wish.
Just keep the above in mind.

There's another way to get a bootable USB flash drive:
There are ebay sellers who will sell you a bootable flash drive with a copy of the OS on it (your choice of the OS).
Will probably cost $20-25.

One last suggestion:
There is also a SPECIAL VERSION of internet recovery to try:
Command-SHIFT-OPTION-R

When you boot to this, the installer will offer you the original OS that the Mac shipped with (or the closest working version to it).

Give that a try.
And remember... when you boot to internet recovery, you MUST KEEP ALL THE KEYS PRESSED as the Mac boots, until you see the "spinning globe", or at least until it asks for your wifi password.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of folks forget to do this.

How do you know if it's the special version of the recovery? I wouldn't trust the USB bootable drives from Ebay in this day and age. They can contain malware or corrupted viruses and other malicious things. It is possible to do it on Windows, but I think there is extra steps.

 

[winxmac]

Download Mountain Lion macOS if you are creating a bootable drive with Transmac, because I've heard that Mountain Lion macOS contains ALL the files, so you're able to install t correctly. In my case it might just be the USB port as well that can't read the USB, because before I did the entire disk clean, I plugged in my phone with a USB and it wasn't reading it. You still have to format the USB on Windows in terminal with "diskpart."

I don't think downloading Mountain Lion will help since I have a Macbook Pro 2015 and I will not go through the hoops to make it work...

I have downloaded the App Store versions of Big Sur and Catalina for future use, but right now I have it on Monterey... I still think that Catalina is the best version for older Intel Mac that supports it when it comes to great performance and speed but I will keep it on Monterey for the time being...

 

[pika1126]

I don't think downloading Mountain Lion will help since I have a Macbook Pro 2015 and I will not go through the hoops to make it work...

I have downloaded the App Store versions of Big Sur and Catalina for future use, but right now I have it on Monterey... I still think that Catalina is the best version for older Intel Mac that supports it when it comes to great performance and speed but I will keep it on Monterey for the time being...

Oh! Then you're pretty much up to date then, because Monterey is way way above newer than Mountain Lion OS. Then I don't think yours has any issue right? 2015 is a newer model. I'm not sure if you have an intel based mac or a Apple Silicone mac.

 

[winxmac]

Oh! Then you're pretty much up to date then, because Monterey is way way above newer than Mountain Lion OS. Then I don't think yours has any issue right? 2015 is a newer model. I'm not sure if you have an intel based mac or a Apple Silicone mac.

Apple Silicon was introduced in 2020... Anything older than that up to 2006 is an Intel model... I guess you could say I don't have a problem at the moment since I am replying to you using Monterey on my Macbook Pro 2015...

I still have the issue with internet recovery not connecting to recovery server when trying to install High Sierra... My intention was to upgrade to Catalina from High Sierra through internet recovery but is no longer working for me [it was still working last week, around April 26] but for now, if I need to downgrade to Catalina or use Big Sur, I'll just create a bootable drive using the App Store downloads...

 

[pika1126]

OP wrote:
"I'll have to make a bootable USB Drive on my Windows computer"

This is next-to-impossible.
It CAN be done (I have read), but for practical purposes, you need ANOTHER MAC to create a bootable USB flash drive.

Go ahead and try if you wish.
Just keep the above in mind.

There's another way to get a bootable USB flash drive:
There are ebay sellers who will sell you a bootable flash drive with a copy of the OS on it (your choice of the OS).
Will probably cost $20-25.

One last suggestion:
There is also a SPECIAL VERSION of internet recovery to try:
Command-SHIFT-OPTION-R

When you boot to this, the installer will offer you the original OS that the Mac shipped with (or the closest working version to it).

Give that a try.
And remember... when you boot to internet recovery, you MUST KEEP ALL THE KEYS PRESSED as the Mac boots, until you see the "spinning globe", or at least until it asks for your wifi password.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of folks forget to do this.

So your method almost worked! Infact it would have worked if Apple had validated their certificate for Lion OS. It's just that Apple doesn't support or lost their certificate for Lion OS X(which is the original OS I bought my MacBook Pro with). I'm not the only one having issues with installing Lion OS X, as I've read , no one can get Lion OS X installed. I've read that Apple hasn't renewed their license certification for it because it's so old they no longer support it. I don't know why they would keep it on their website though, but I did read it from the actual Apple website itself. So good news my USB ports are working fine, because it read the bootable USB I made for mac with Mountain Lion OS X, I was able to select the external drive with the ISO Mountain Lion OS X in it, agree to the terms, but it gave me a "A Required Download is Missing." I'm not sure what it means by that, but I'm guessing maybe my Bootable USB macOS Drive is missing a file? Not sure, I'll have to research, because it can read it, but when it tries to install after agreeing on the terms and Agreement, it gives me this particular error message. But I'm close.

 

[pika1126]

Apple Silicon was introduced in 2020... Anything older than that up to 2006 is an Intel model... I guess you could say I don't have a problem at the moment since I am replying to you using Monterey on my Macbook Pro 2015...

I still have the issue with internet recovery not connecting to recovery server when trying to install High Sierra... My intention was to upgrade to Catalina from High Sierra through internet recovery but is no longer working for me [it was still working last week, around April 26] but for now, if I need to downgrade to Catalina or use Big Sur, I'll just create a bootable drive using the App Store downloads...

Gotcha! I didn't know what year Apple released their Apple Silicon computers. Since I rarely use Windows or Mac anymore. I mainly use a lot of Linux and and some Windows, because I work with some Windows R2 Servers as well for work, but primarily Linux servers and I've gotten used to it now hehe. I want to upgrade and fix this MacBook Pro, because I want to give it away to my nephew whose only 11 and doesn't need the latest and brand new M2 MacBook Pro at all. Especially since he looses everything and I told my sister, it's not a good idea for a boy who is about to turn 12 years old next year and is very negligent about his things. So, I want to upgrade this MacBook Pro, see how he handles it for a year or two and then if he's responsible with it at school, then maybe.

 

[panjandrum]

Looks like you are still having issues with this? Are you absolutely unable to get access to another Mac? If you just want to get this done, and have it work, I would do this:
1) Replace your SATA cable, period. I support a lot of machines of this era and the SATA cables fail routinely and cause a bewildering array of issues. It's cheap and easy to do, so replace it.
2) On another Mac, assuming you have at least one usable 16GB USB thumb drive as well, download OCLP (OpenCore Legacy Patcher).
3) Using OCLP decide which OS you want to run and build that installer. Don't forget to install OCLP to the EFI partition of the USB thumb drive. (Be sure to choose the TARGET model, otherwise OLCP will assume you wish to build an installer for the model it is currently running on.)
4) Boot from the USB Thumb drive you created. Erase the internal SSD and install the OS.
5) Boot from the internal SSD and wade through an initial account setup (will be very slow with the UI responses, but absolutely doable)
6) Install any OLCP Root Patches and Install OCLP itself to the EFI partition of the internal SSD
7) You are basically done, and now have a Mac running a recent OS.

I support a LOT of old Macs and in all fairness using OLCP is now faster and easier than wading through Apple's own obtuse reinstall processes. Research it a little first, but if you just want to get this system running with a minimum of fuss so you can hand it to your nephew, this is the way I would do it.

 

[Audit13]

I see, I thought you had said that you had nothing but issues with the SSD's after upgrading from a mechanical HDD drive to an SSD drive. So if I understand correctly, it was your SATA cables giving you issues after the fact, not the SSD itself?

I had issues with SSDs before changing the SATA cable. I had no problem with 2.5" SSDs from Crucial, Samsung, Kingston, and Adata after changing the SATA cable.

 

[Fishrrman]

I don't think it's the SATA cable in the OP's case.

He's gonna have to get hands-on-help from someone else with a Mac.

 

[pika1126]

Looks like you are still having issues with this? Are you absolutely unable to get access to another Mac? If you just want to get this done, and have it work, I would do this:
1) Replace your SATA cable, period. I support a lot of machines of this era and the SATA cables fail routinely and cause a bewildering array of issues. It's cheap and easy to do, so replace it.
2) On another Mac, assuming you have at least one usable 16GB USB thumb drive as well, download OCLP (OpenCore Legacy Patcher).
3) Using OCLP decide which OS you want to run and build that installer. Don't forget to install OCLP to the EFI partition of the USB thumb drive. (Be sure to choose the TARGET model, otherwise OLCP will assume you wish to build an installer for the model it is currently running on.)
4) Boot from the USB Thumb drive you created. Erase the internal SSD and install the OS.
5) Boot from the internal SSD and wade through an initial account setup (will be very slow with the UI responses, but absolutely doable)
6) Install any OLCP Root Patches and Install OCLP itself to the EFI partition of the internal SSD
7) You are basically done, and now have a Mac running a recent OS.

I support a LOT of old Macs and in all fairness using OLCP is now faster and easier than wading through Apple's own obtuse reinstall processes. Research it a little first, but if you just want to get this system running with a minimum of fuss so you can hand it to your nephew, this is the way I would do it.

I did replace my SATA cable as of yesterday and that actually wasn't it. Same issue,

Looks like you are still having issues with this? Are you absolutely unable to get access to another Mac? If you just want to get this done, and have it work, I would do this:
1) Replace your SATA cable, period. I support a lot of machines of this era and the SATA cables fail routinely and cause a bewildering array of issues. It's cheap and easy to do, so replace it.
2) On another Mac, assuming you have at least one usable 16GB USB thumb drive as well, download OCLP (OpenCore Legacy Patcher).
3) Using OCLP decide which OS you want to run and build that installer. Don't forget to install OCLP to the EFI partition of the USB thumb drive. (Be sure to choose the TARGET model, otherwise OLCP will assume you wish to build an installer for the model it is currently running on.)
4) Boot from the USB Thumb drive you created. Erase the internal SSD and install the OS.
5) Boot from the internal SSD and wade through an initial account setup (will be very slow with the UI responses, but absolutely doable)
6) Install any OLCP Root Patches and Install OCLP itself to the EFI partition of the internal SSD
7) You are basically done, and now have a Mac running a recent OS.

I support a LOT of old Macs and in all fairness using OLCP is now faster and easier than wading through Apple's own obtuse reinstall processes. Research it a little first, but if you just want to get this system running with a minimum of fuss so you can hand it to your nephew, this is the way I would do it.

I did replace the SATA cable just in case, and actually that wasn't it at all. In comment #35 is correct! At this point we know it's the OS being difficult because of many things, licenses and compatibility, etc. Actually OpenCore Legacy Patcher does sound like a good idea, but again just like Fishrrman said, I need another mac, or find a way to install all mac compatible files on a USB drive in Windows. I wonder if linux can do it? I'll have to research. I do have USB's that are higher than 16GB. Most that I have are 64GB.