Migrating from 2011 Macbook air (A1370) to 2015 Macbook pro 15" (A1398)

[rshaules]

Hi everyone,
First time on the forum.
I've been using a dinosaur of a computer, a mid 2011 Macbook air 11" (A1370), running High Sierra 10.13.6
I've bought a second hand mid 2015 Macbook pro 15" (A1398) and having issues migrating to the MacBook pro.
The Macbook pro has Big Sur 11.7.2 running on it.
This might sound strange, but I actually want to keep running High Sierra as I've got Adobe CS6 and Microsoft office 2011, neither of which require a monthly subscription. Yes- I'm a cheap skate, but I love not having to pay a subscription when the older software suits me perfectly.
Question is this- I attempted data migration between the MacBook air and MacBook pro, but was unsuccessful. The machines, while on the same wifi, didn't show up to one another.
I attempted to migrate from time machine backup of the MacBook air, but from what I can tell this won't downgrade the MacBook pro to High Sierra, and instead will only transfer over some documents.
Adobe CS6 and Microsoft 2011 won't work on Big Sur.
I downloaded High Sierra on the MacBook pro but Big Sur wouldn't let me downgrade.
Any ideas how I can totally wipe my MacBook pro with the data from my MacBook air (especially the apps and os).
Thanks for your help!

 

[FreakinEurekan]

What you’ll want to do, is boot the MacBook Pro while holding Shift-Option-Command-R. This boots to an Internet Recovery mode that’ll reinstall the shipping version.

Once you’re booted there, open Disk Utility and erase the drive completely. Name it “Macintosh HD” or whatever you’d like. Then exit Disk Utility, and run “Reinstall OS X”.

The earliest supported version depends on the date it was originally sold; it might be El Capitan, Sierra, or High Sierra. Once you have installed whatever it shipped with, you can update it from there.

 

[rshaules]

What you’ll want to do, is boot the MacBook Pro while holding Shift-Option-Command-R. This boots to an Internet Recovery mode that’ll reinstall the shipping version.

Once you’re booted there, open Disk Utility and erase the drive completely. Name it “Macintosh HD” or whatever you’d like. Then exit Disk Utility, and run “Reinstall OS X”.

The earliest supported version depends on the date it was originally sold; it might be El Capitan, Sierra, or High Sierra. Once you have installed whatever it shipped with, you can update it from there.

Thanks so much, I hadn't tried internet recovery and that seems to be working. Nothing else would let me erase the entire hd.. thanks heaps!