My new MacBook Pro has no operating system and it fails to install by using Recovery Mode... Why?

I have almost a similar issue, my MacBook 2015 (came with El Capitan), i has to erase the disk on the recovery mode, but every time I try to install an OSX (El-Capitan through the recovery screen), or using USB bootable with Mojave or Catalina, even through internet recovery, always restarts in the middle and I get a Kernel error (fatal error). Searched the net and I found an article to modify the Mac date through terminal from the recovery mode to two or three years back, even this didn’t work.

I have a feeling that there is more to just erasing one disk through the disk utility, To do a fresh install. Any ideas?

Your first problem merely meant it couldn't find the startup drive. An NVRAM reset might have fixed that problem, or selecting the startup drive in Recovery. The symbol you see there means the boot files are missing.

That Mac had Catalina installed, so you will need to completely erase it to install Sierra.

You need to boot into Internet Recovery using cmd-opt-R on restart. You'll see a spinning globe as it boots from Apple's servers.

Once booted, open Disk Utility.

In the View popup menu, select Show All Devices.

You should be able to select the drive device. Topmost, left outdented from its parts.

Erase that using Mac OS Extended (Journaled), GUID partition table.

Name the volume anything you want.

Quit Disk Utility.

Reinstall the OS. My guess is it will attempt to install Sierra, again.

usinakenes wrote:

Then I tried to erase the disks. No use.

You stopped just when it was getting interesting. What does "No use" mean? Because that's what you have to do. You will have to go in reverse. Delete the volumes, then the container. Then you will be able to erase the disk and install.

Hello,

I’ve got some kind of same issue with my MacBook Pro 2017 Touchbar. It was running perfectly till I restarted it one day occasionally, after that flashing folder with question mark appeared. Apple support were advising to reboot Mac in different modes, reset some other stuff as well. In the end I was able to get into recovery mode super slow and laggy... but the thing in recovery mode I was not able to select any drive, any storage to reinstall MacOS. I brought it to Apple store, they ran some test and told me that the error is “storage failure” and it require replacement of the whole logic board for around 800 US bucks.

I used the computer for 2 years only, had to replace the display due to a dead pixel, had to replace the keyboard due to a double clicking key, then I had to come back few more times, bcause when they assembled my MacBook they failed to connect one of speakers properly, what caused malfunction of that speaker.

In the end, the storage issue isn’t solved yet, my Mac is a piece of useless metal now since I can’t use it.

I was able to install Catalina directly, though, so it didn't attempt to install Sierra. Just to let you know :)

Great. Thanks for the feedback. I just thought since it had a Sierra screen up there, it would install the shipping OS instead of the current OS.