You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

early 2009 imac reinstall snowleopard

i tried to reset my early 2009 iMac to factory settings so we restarted it and erased using disk utility. When we tried to reinstall OS X it suggests El Capitan so we put in my Apple ID (not the original one for the iMac as we got it second hand) but it says the item is temporarily available. How can I reinstall OS X to my iMac?

iMac, OS X 10.11

Posted on Jul 28, 2020 3:04 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 29, 2020 10:04 PM

If you have access to another Mac which can run macOS 10.11, then you can download and create a bootable macOS USB installer using these instructions:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372


Otherwise you will need to purchase a retail version of the OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD (one with a black label) so that you can install Snow Leopard so that you then have the ability to download the macOS 10.11 installer:

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT206886

Similar questions

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 29, 2020 10:04 PM in response to aeh200

If you have access to another Mac which can run macOS 10.11, then you can download and create a bootable macOS USB installer using these instructions:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372


Otherwise you will need to purchase a retail version of the OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD (one with a black label) so that you can install Snow Leopard so that you then have the ability to download the macOS 10.11 installer:

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT206886

early 2009 imac reinstall snowleopard

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.