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Tygrz

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 28, 2014
32
0
Hawaii
I've had numerous problems with El Cap GM, and went to reinstall the OS that was on this Mac when new, using original install disks. It won't let me do it, saying I cannot install the OS on the internal hard drive. So you cannot go back?!!
 

fisherking

macrumors G4
Jul 16, 2010
11,252
5,563
ny somewhere
what problems are you having? might be worth investigating. am running 10.11.1, and so far, everything works (amazingly enough)...
 

valdikor

macrumors 6502
Aug 21, 2012
388
215
Slovakia
El Capitan hasn't even been publicly released, if you're beta testing, you should expect problems to pop up here and there.
No need to go back to an ancient OS version and strip yourselff off all the new features, just use stable up-to-date software and you'll be fine, unless you have very specific needs.
 

Tygrz

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 28, 2014
32
0
Hawaii
what problems are you having? might be worth investigating. am running 10.11.1, and so far, everything works (amazingly enough)...

Problems with El Cap: Very slow - lots of 'beach balls', intermittent application failure to work. and the big one... several of my hard drives have quit using El Cap beta.

So I wiped the internal hard drive using several passes and attempted to reinstall original OS (10.6.8) and when it asks in the installation process which hard drive I'd like to install on, the internal has a yellow triangle by it and says OS cannot be intsalled on that hard drive
 

jbarley

macrumors 601
Jul 1, 2006
4,023
1,895
Vancouver Island
Problems with El Cap: Very slow - lots of 'beach balls', intermittent application failure to work. and the big one... several of my hard drives have quit using El Cap beta.

So I wiped the internal hard drive using several passes and attempted to reinstall original OS (10.6.8) and when it asks in the installation process which hard drive I'd like to install on, the internal has a yellow triangle by it and says OS cannot be intsalled on that hard drive
You mention that you wiped the drive, did you also create a new "Partition" and format it using the "Guid" partition map?
 

fisherking

macrumors G4
Jul 16, 2010
11,252
5,563
ny somewhere
for all the trouble you're going thru...why not try 10.11 again? install, update to 10.11.1...see how it goes. the experiences you're having aren't universal, so something specific is happening with your system. what mac btw?
 

Tygrz

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 28, 2014
32
0
Hawaii
You mention that you wiped the drive, did you also create a new "Partition" and format it using the "Guid" partition map?
Yes. I've become somewhat of a novice reinstalling through the years!! Never had this problem.
This is a 2013 27" iMac, and my other (which has the same problems with the exception that the hard drive is totally borked!!) is a 2008 20" iMac
 

Tygrz

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 28, 2014
32
0
Hawaii
for all the trouble you're going thru...why not try 10.11 again? install, update to 10.11.1...see how it goes. the experiences you're having aren't universal, so something specific is happening with your system. what mac btw?

I feel I didn't have any say in the matter. Once I wiped the hard drive, and no being able to install 10.6.8. I disconnected everything but mouse and keyboard and ejected the Snow Lep disk. When I rebooted it just started installing El Cap. It is currently 10.11. Things look to be a LOT better, although I did keep up with updates rather religiously.
 
Last edited:

tampageek

macrumors 6502
Jul 1, 2015
343
537
Florida, USA
I can't find the link but I remember reading on dev forums that with the final release of El Cap you will NOT be able to go back to an older OS. It had something to do with no longer being able to disable SIP and changes to firmware.
 

jbarley

macrumors 601
Jul 1, 2006
4,023
1,895
Vancouver Island
I can't find the link but I remember reading on dev forums that with the final release of El Cap you will NOT be able to go back to an older OS. It had something to do with no longer being able to disable SIP and changes to firmware.
That smacks of "horse pucky", in most cases a simple "internet Recovery" will install the operating system the computer originally shipped with.
 
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beebarb

macrumors 6502
Sep 10, 2015
288
258
That smacks of "horse pucky", in most cases a simple "internet Recovery" will install the operating system the computer originally shipped with.
Well, it sounds like nonsense because it is nonsense.
SIP is only at the software-level.

A proper complete erase of the disk would allow any prior OS X version to be installed.
The ONLY way a seemingly blank disk can't install an older OS X, is if it wasn't properly reformatted.
 
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flowrider

macrumors 604
Nov 23, 2012
7,321
3,003
Yes. I've become somewhat of a novice reinstalling through the years!! Never had this problem.
This is a 2013 27" iMac, and my other (which has the same problems with the exception that the hard drive is totally borked!!) is a 2008 20" iMac

2013 iMac will not run 10.6.8, the 2008 should.

Lou
 

tampageek

macrumors 6502
Jul 1, 2015
343
537
Florida, USA
That smacks of "horse pucky", in most cases a simple "internet Recovery" will install the operating system the computer originally shipped with.
It might be. We'll find out soon enough. Unfortunately if true, your stuck.

Personally, I don't like the idea of locking down OS X like iOS is. Having full access to the file system is the reason I use a laptop over a tablet. Rootless (SIP) sounds great until you get into the gory details. And nothing is hacker-proof - including 

It is not unusual for iOS to prevent reverting to an older OS. Why would doing the same with OS X really come as a surprise?
 

Tygrz

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 28, 2014
32
0
Hawaii
I can't find the link but I remember reading on dev forums that with the final release of El Cap you will NOT be able to go back to an older OS. It had something to do with no longer being able to disable SIP and changes to firmware.

Oh that's GREAT... just great!!
 

beebarb

macrumors 6502
Sep 10, 2015
288
258
Oh that's GREAT... just great!!
Don't worry, they're just repeating nonsense.
You can install an older OS X no problem.

The disk just needs to be properly formatted, and the version you are trying to install must be one of the supported versions for your Mac.

As an example, I have a copy of 10.6. That will install on my old Mac, but not my current one, as my current Mac's minimum OS X is 10.8
 

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
21,007
4,588
New Zealand
For what it's worth, I've reverted my 2015 MacBook Pro from the 10.11 GM back down to 10.10.5 without any issues. I did have to go to the Partition tab in Disk Utility and re-apply "1 Partition" (the Erase tab didn't work), but other than that there were no issues with reinstalling 10.10.5.

I've rolled back for a couple of reasons, the most major being that my USB microphone goes all "staticy" after a few minutes (this is a longstanding issue that used to happen after a couple of hours but now seems to happen an order of magnitude more often).
 
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