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I need to generate a bootable installer for my old iMac 2009 A1224 to reinstall El Captain 10.11.6 after I have formatted its HD, but I only have a MiniMac M1 2022 running Ventura 13.1. How can I do that? In an article here at Apple Community, I read that it would be impossible to complete the task in a computer running an OS later than El Captain. Is that right? Can I solve the problem?
iMac, OS X 10.11
MrHoffman wrote:
then follow the steps to unpack the installer as listed in that article...
Won't work as the extractor app checks for system compatibility (at least it did a few years ago).
Then use the createinstallmedia tool... Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
Won't work with an Apple Silicon Mac even if the El Capitan installer has been extracted to the Applications folder. Another regular contributor mentioned it and I confirmed that macOS on Apple Silicon Macs won't allow you to do this for any OS not compatible with the Apple Silicon Mac. The createinstallmedia command would not work when I tried to use it with a copy of the Catalina installer I had archived (Apple Silicon Macs shipped with Big Sur when they first appeared in 2020). With Intel Macs, this part of the process should work even if the Mac is not compatible with the OS.
If that doesn't work, you have your answer—that you'll need to scrounge an older Mac, or fully retire this iMac.
A Qualifying Mac for macOS 10.11 is generally one from 2008 to 2015, but this article can be used to confirm OS & hardware compatibility:
MrHoffman wrote:
then follow the steps to unpack the installer as listed in that article...
Won't work as the extractor app checks for system compatibility (at least it did a few years ago).
Then use the createinstallmedia tool... Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
Won't work with an Apple Silicon Mac even if the El Capitan installer has been extracted to the Applications folder. Another regular contributor mentioned it and I confirmed that macOS on Apple Silicon Macs won't allow you to do this for any OS not compatible with the Apple Silicon Mac. The createinstallmedia command would not work when I tried to use it with a copy of the Catalina installer I had archived (Apple Silicon Macs shipped with Big Sur when they first appeared in 2020). With Intel Macs, this part of the process should work even if the Mac is not compatible with the OS.
If that doesn't work, you have your answer—that you'll need to scrounge an older Mac, or fully retire this iMac.
A Qualifying Mac for macOS 10.11 is generally one from 2008 to 2015, but this article can be used to confirm OS & hardware compatibility:
See if you can download—not via the App Store—the installer from here:
How to download macOS - Apple Support
then follow the steps to unpack the installer as listed in that article...
Then use the createinstallmedia tool... Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
If that doesn't work, you have your answer—that you'll need to scrounge an older Mac, or fully retire this iMac.
(And if you're thinking of using that iMac as a display with this Mac mini, that won't work.)
andebrito wrote:
Many thanks! But it does not seem to work even in a MacBook Ari 2014k using an Intel Core i5. I kept receiving the same result in the terminal: command not found.
That's likely a syntax error with whatever you're typing. Commands within the command shells are sensitive to what gets typed, particularly around the syntax used with embedded spaces and with other special characters.
You can cut-and-paste and post the command typed and the error here, and somebody will likely be able to provide a diagnosis.
Thanks a lot, Hoffman.
Here is the command and what I received from Terminal
sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app
Password:
sudo: /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia: command not found
The first command I copy/paste from Apple support. as you advised me to do.
Yes!!! Indeed! I didn't realize it was a necessary step to take. The people at Apple's support misguided me on that.
Thanks a lot, Mr Hoffman!!
Using my Macbook Air 2014, I could generate a bootable drive.
The bootable drive, however, didn't work on the old iMac. For some reason I cannot explain, the installation failed twice. The drive was recognized; I stated the installation but at the end the computer returned to the emergency drive and to the window with the four options: recover from time machine, install Mac OS X from internet, get help on line or disk utility. Then I tried anew the second option, download Mac OS from internet, and, for may surprise, this time it worked.
I supposed the use of the bootable disk repaired some problem at the main HD and the installation was then possible.
I thank you for you help!!
All the best.
The internal HDD is quite possibly failing.
I’d usually offer an external SSD as a potential work-around, but a 2009 is so old that its external buses are too slow to make an SSD worthwhile and an HDD is probably a more appropriate choice.
Or ceasing resuscitation efforts on what is a ~fourteen year old computer.
Businesses tend to seek three to five years due to financial and warranty considerations, five to seven years is fairly common for home usage and with macOS support (and if you didn’t buy the bottom-end models), and maybe some folks get ten years from their Mac, but the usefulness and reliability drops off past ~seven or so.
Did you possibly forget to unpack the installer after the download:
Many thanks! But it does not seem to work even in a MacBook Ari 2014k using an Intel Core i5. I kept receiving the same result in the terminal: command not found.
You are quite right. The boy is old, but I have an older one. A Bondy, which is still working!
Thanks for helping me to resuscitate my second older museum peace.
How to create a bootable installer to El Captain in a MiniMac M1?
