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why does the macOS Recovery consistently fail??

Don’t understand how to successfully use macOS Recovery. Have a couple of old macbook pro’s I want to recycle back to Apple one day soon… Started with the oldest of the group, one from 2011 that still has a spinning HD.  We copied any desired files and then used Disk Utility to erase the disk using a low level of “secure delete”.  Took all afternoon…  


I could stop at that point but chose to try to see if I could learn how to use macOS Recovery (never used it before).  Used the power button to hard shutdown the computer.  Then restarted holding down <command> <R>..  It came up to an expected place where I saw 4 options, including Disk Utility and also “Reinstall macOS”.  Looking at Disk Utility contents, yes, I see a basically clean Macintosh HD and I also see a Disk Image called “OS X Base System”.  After looking at that, I go back to the four options (I don’t use Time Machine and never have, I backup a different way) and I chose “Reinstall macOS” followed by <continue>… That puts up a splash screen for macOS Sierra.  Before cleaning the hard drive, the computer had been loaded with macOS 10.12.6…. And that appears to be (what Sierra (10.12) was so that makes sense so far, that it would have a copy of Sierra saved on some Recovery partition…. Another <continue>….   It says next that it “needs to verify the computer’s eligibility with Apple”…. Have no idea what that could mean as it is not connected to any network anymore???  But though that step failed a couple of times, on several more tries, it has worked and proceeded on, whatever that means?? Then I had to agree to the license agreement…. Agree and then onward…   It offers two possible install locations, the Recovery HD that is grayed out so not really a choice (says it is 650 MB total with 66 MB available)…. And the other choice is “Macintosh HD” with 750 GBytes available…. I make the one obvious choice and click “Install”…


Then comes the frustrating part…. It says it will take 6 minutes…. I watch it count down (5… 4… 2… 1… 30 seconds… ) until it appears to get done…. I’ve seen it count down to where it says 0 seconds remaining…. I’ve also seen it report the bogus (and repeated more than once) “-399 seconds remaining”…. But even when it came down to 0 seconds remaining, it just sits there forever, NEVER offering any other button other than “cancel”…. 


Then there’s the “installer log” which puts up all sorts of error related stuff that likely would tell me, if I understood what it meant” why it can’t succeed…. 


I have pictures of the “installer log” and so forth but not sure any of that would be very helpful…. Any input on why I cannot successfully install a new copy of macOS Sierra (10.12) on this soon to be recycled computer???  thanks...

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Aug 7, 2023 10:50 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 7, 2023 3:05 PM

 Start up from macOS Recovery

Option-⌘-R

Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.


APFS won't work for Sierra, Sierra needs MacOS Extended Journaled. High Sierra won't work for APFS on earlier Macs.


What has often worked for others is to use this Restore Method instead of CMD+r keys...


Option-⌘-R

Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254793247?answerId=258936149022#258936149022

Clean Install of High Sierra: Multiple Fa… - Apple Community

An Error Occurred While Preparing The Ins… - Apple Community


Thanks to Clo3y…

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/309399/how-can-i-download-an-older-version-of-os-x-macos


Similar questions

6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 7, 2023 3:05 PM in response to Robert Paris

 Start up from macOS Recovery

Option-⌘-R

Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.


APFS won't work for Sierra, Sierra needs MacOS Extended Journaled. High Sierra won't work for APFS on earlier Macs.


What has often worked for others is to use this Restore Method instead of CMD+r keys...


Option-⌘-R

Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254793247?answerId=258936149022#258936149022

Clean Install of High Sierra: Multiple Fa… - Apple Community

An Error Occurred While Preparing The Ins… - Apple Community


Thanks to Clo3y…

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/309399/how-can-i-download-an-older-version-of-os-x-macos


Aug 8, 2023 8:25 AM in response to Robert Paris

Sounds like the hard drive may be failing which would not surprise me for a 2011 iMac. You can try running the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected, but unfortunately the diagnostics don't detect most drive failures.


@BDAqua has an excellent suggestion as it would allow you to confirm you are reinstalling macOS correctly and if successful allow you to check the health of the internal hard drive using DriveDx (free trial period available) which is able to detect many drive failures if the Apple Diagnostics don't detect any issues.

Aug 7, 2023 4:07 PM in response to BDAqua

Frustrating... I've done work that now causes the system to see a valid startup disk as macOS 10.12.3, what was on the recovery partition and I eventually got that installed on the Mac HD... I even ran disk first aid on that drive/system and it came up and said all ok... It allows me to choose that as a startup disk, I restart choosing that... It boots forever and finally comes to a place where it says nothing, does nothing, just sits there with the progress bar pretty much all the way filled but nothing ever happens... Frustrating...


Aug 7, 2023 4:59 PM in response to BDAqua

I even tried starting this last go with a SAFE boot but it does the same, shows a gray screen with the apple logo and a progress bar which proceeds until the bar it full and then nothing... No errors, no words, no nothing... Sure seems to show that I have a valid and error free version of macOS 10.12.3 where I also have a .dmg for macOS 10.12.6 (what was actually on the drive before we cleaned it... But I've chosen to focus on the 10.12.3 because it, at least, now shows up as a valid "start up" disk so I've been trying that... I will give what you are saying a try, just leave it even over night and see if it ever gets some place... thanks for your help...



why does the macOS Recovery consistently fail??

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