Recovery / Internet Recovery not working to reinstall Mac OS X

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Recovery / Internet Recovery not working to reinstall Mac OS X

I recently got an old iMac (Mid-2011) from a family member that didn't use it anymore. Wanted to wipe the OS and reinstall for optimal performance, but have been unable to reinstall the OS. I erased the hard drive with the OS and tried to use the Internet Recovery feature to reinstall OS X Yosemite, but it only gave the option for OS X Lion. I proceeded anyway and tried to install Lion and it keeps saying "unable to download additional items". The progress bar always jumps to the end while the estimated time remaining is in the billions of hours, and then ends with that error message. I have another macbook air to make a bootable USB but I cant figure out how to get the Lion (or Yosemite idk which one i need anymore) on my macbook air to make the drive. Should I just go to the apple store?

Posted on Apr 18, 2022 4:42 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 18, 2022 6:01 PM in response to IanGCollins

Apple has discontinued support (it happened to me), so the simple solution is to take it to the Genius Bar at an Apple retail store.

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Answer 2

PRP_53

Level 10

91,801 points

Apr 19, 2022 4:24 AM in response to IanGCollins

An iMac from 2011 maybe able to run only as high as High Sierra macOS 10.13

The Bootable Installer may also be created from the Other Apple Computer provided it meets the below Requirements.

This method will WIPE ALL Data and there is No Recovery - Period.

To perform this action will require booting from a Bootable Installer.

This will have to be performed from a Qualifying Computer to run the version of macOS to be made on the Bootable Installer. Example : Bootable Installer of Big Sur would have to be done on a computer that Qualifies to run Big Sur.

Notation: If the computer being used to perform this action is Too New or Too Old to qualify to run the version of macOS - this computer can not be used.

Once that is done read on for preparing the Destination computer >> Only works on Intel Based Apple Computers.

1 - Shutdown computer and disconnect all external drive Except the newly created Bootable Installer.

2- Restart and immediately hold the OPTION key until the Startup Manager appears and choose the USB Drive.

3 - It will present options >> Disk Utilities >> View >> View ALL attached Drives.

4 - Choose the Upper Most Drive ( not the volumes indented and list below ).

5 - Formatting for macOS 10.13 High Sierra and below requires HFS Journaled with the GUID Partition Map

6 - Once that is done >> backup out of Disk Utilities and choose install macOS.

7 - Follow the prompts and it may automatically reboot several time.

8 - Upon a final reboot - Setup Assist will present with the newer version of macOS.

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Recovery / Internet Recovery not working to reinstall Mac OS X

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