Macbook pro late 2011 OS install

Captain · 20 Feb 2021 at 21:03

Hi all,

My old late 2011 MBP came with lion installed which i did upgrade to high sierra.

Today i have formatted the drive and the laptop is only giving me the option to install lion again from the utility menu.

When i try this, it gives me an error stating files are missing.

Is it a simple case of creating a bootable USB with high sierra on it and formatting the mac that way?

I have no other mac software so i have had to download the DMG of HS and i'm currently creating a bootable USB drive using Transmac on my Windows 10 machine.

If that doesn't work, what are my options?

I have also formatted the usb stick and converted it to GPT.

This is the error.

Cheers

Captain · 20 Feb 2021 at 23:02

Sorted, can this thread be deleted please?

Captain · 22 Feb 2021 at 13:55

Yeah.

searched for ages for a fix and stumbled upon 1 old forum post.

What fixed it was resetting the PRAM by pressing (Command+Alt+P+R) together while booting the machine up until you see internet recovery.

Power the system down and cycle through 2 boot sequences.

Then press Command+R to get into the utility boot option, the MacBook should then give you the option to reinstall MacOS rather than lion.

As lion is no longer supported, Apple can’t verify the install on their servers so you get stuck in a boot loop.

Captain · 25 Feb 2021 at 21:56

Hold down Command+Alt+P+R and boot up, once it takes you to the internet recovery window, shut it down and power cycle twice.

Then hold Command+R and you should boot into the utility menu where it’ll allow you to install the last version of macOS you had rather than lion.

I also used the buttons on the right hand side of the keyboard rather than the left, probably doesn’t make a difference but it just seemed quicker to act that way.

Captain · 25 Feb 2021 at 22:37

Yeah that would work, you can press and hold the option key when powering up, this will allow you to choose which drive to boot from.

Captain · 26 Feb 2021 at 10:05

If the MacBook was never updated from lion then I think your only option is to make a bootable usb drive.

I think the above worked for me because I was running high Sierra before I formatted my drive.

Captain · 26 Feb 2021 at 11:12

MSTRBKR said:
Thanks. I really appreciate this help! The only way I’m able to identify the age is from 2010 being printed on the underside amongst the copyright info. Hopefully that’s correct. My friends macbook runs big sur so I’m hoping the app store allows downloading of older versions but I’m not holding my breath.

They can be found here, forward this on to your friend.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211683