- I created a USB disk with a bootable El Capitan as per this documentation. Plug-in your USB key on a turned-off computer. Start your Mac, press immediately OPTION (aka ALT) Select the Orange icon (aka a USB stick) labelled El Capitan. If it does not detect it after 10 sec and you only see your hard-drive. Try another USB port and wait 10 sec again.
- I am not trying to go backward, the screen says i am trying to install El Capitain, i would happily go to a newer version, but i have now way of selecting that. I thought if i restart with CMD + R it would download the latest version OS X that was compatible with my hardware which is High Sierra.
To get the latest features and maintain the security, stability, compatibility, and performance of your Mac, it's important to keep your software up to date. Apple recommends that you always use the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac.
If you insist on using El Capitan you will need to sign into the App Store on a Mac that cannot run High Sierra and download EL Cap, then make a bootable usb installer to use on your MBP.
Learn how to upgrade to macOS Big Sur, the latest version of macOS.
Check compatibility
The version of macOS that came with your Mac is the earliest version it can use. For example, if your Mac came with macOS Big Sur, it will not accept installation of macOS Catalina or earlier.
If a macOS can't be used on your Mac, the App Store or installer will let you know. For example, it might say that it's not compatible with this device or is too old to be opened on this version of macOS. To confirm compatibility before downloading, check the minimum hardware requirements:
- macOS Catalina 10.15 hardware requirements
- macOS Mojave 10.14 hardware requirements
- macOS High Sierra 10.13 hardware requirements
- macOS Sierra 10.12 hardware requirements
- OS X El Capitan 10.11 hardware requirements
- OS X Yosemite 10.10 hardware requirements
Download macOS using Safari on your Mac
Safari uses these links to find the old installers in the App Store. After downloading from the App Store, the installer opens automatically.
- macOS Catalina 10.15 can upgrade Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks
- macOS Mojave 10.14 can upgrade High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion
- macOS High Sierra 10.13 can upgrade Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion
Safari downloads the following older installers as a disk image named InstallOS.dmg or InstallMacOSX.dmg. Open the disk image, then open the .pkg installer inside the disk image. It installs an app named Install [Version Name]. Open that app from your Applications folder to begin installing the operating system.
- macOS Sierra 10.12 can upgrade El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, or Lion
- OS X El Capitan 10.11 can upgrade Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard
- OS X Yosemite 10.10can upgrade Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard
I’m sorry to hear about the issue you are having with what I imagine you expected to be a straightforward install; that’s always frustrating. I’m sure we can help you out, but before we dive in it may be good to establish what we are working with:
1. Were you able to successfully copy your files to the external hard drive as you noted? Do you have any other full or incremental backups of your system from prior to the install, like in Time Machine?
2. What are you seeing when you try to reinstall from Recovery? Is it giving you an error, or is it just hanging/failing? If you are seeing an error, what does it say specifically?
3. Similarly, what are you seeing when you try to verify/repair the disk? Is it saying that the disk is fine, is it finding repairable errors, or is it failing because it cannot repair the disk?
Install Mac El Capitan Vmware
Again, I’m sorry to hear that this happened, but we should be able to get you pointed on the right track.
Clean Install Mac El Capitan
Oct 1, 2015 3:01 PM