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User profile for user: Burialfaith
Burialfaith Author
User level: Level 1
7 points

MBP 2012 won’t reinstall OS via recovery mode and bootable USB key created from Windows aren’t detected

Greetings,


The question is regarding a MBP 2012 model A1286 / MBP 9.1 / Order MD104LL/A .


The hard drive was zeroed via Ubuntu and the MBP boots to a flashing folder with a question mark. Booting into recovery mode offers to reinstall Lion. After setting the clock with ntpdate -u time.apple.com , since the battery is faulty, I managed to reach the point where the OS reinstallation would connect with the Apple servers, but it then produces the following error message: “Can’t download the additional components to install Mac OS X”.


1. Why this error message occurs?


The hard drive which has been manually replaced for a SSD has been “erased” via Disk Utility (in recovery mode) to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and has been partitioned to the same (Mac OS Extended (Journaled)). No APFS format exists under Lion recovery mode; format which I red was for SSD only…


Also, I couldn’t boot from bootable USB key to reinstall the OS, when holding alt / option at startup, as the bootable USB keys aren’t detected. The USB keys were created under Windows (and had their partition table set to GPT). I used TransMac and DMG2ISO to create the bootable USB key and the Sierra and El Capitan .dmg available for web browser download from: How to download and install macOS - Apple Support . (The MBP has no firmware password preventing from booting from external device).


2. How can I reinstall the OS at this point?


I haven’t tried archive.org .dmg / .iso as I can’t be sure the files weren’t edited.


Thanks in advance,

Best regards,



B

MacBook Pro 15″

Posted on Nov 19, 2023 10:30 AM

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User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
245,303 points

Posted on Nov 20, 2023 10:09 AM

Great to hear my friend! :)


To start up from macOS Recovery, turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold one of the following combinations on your keyboard. Command-R is generally recommended, especially if you never installed macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later… How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support


Command (⌘)-R

Install the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac.


Option-⌘-R

Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.


Shift-Option-⌘-R

Install the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.


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User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
245,303 points

Nov 20, 2023 10:09 AM in response to Burialfaith

Great to hear my friend! :)


To start up from macOS Recovery, turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold one of the following combinations on your keyboard. Command-R is generally recommended, especially if you never installed macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later… How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support


Command (⌘)-R

Install the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac.


Option-⌘-R

Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.


Shift-Option-⌘-R

Install the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.


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User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
245,303 points

Nov 19, 2023 10:38 PM in response to Burialfaith

B,


In Disk Utility>View, select Show all Devices, highlight the top left entry.


APFS won't work for Sierra or earlier, Sierra or earlier 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.


Messed up Factory Reset on MacBook Pro Mi… - Apple Community

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

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

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255040953?answerId=259391356022#259391356022


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User profile for user: Burialfaith
Burialfaith Author
User level: Level 1
7 points

Nov 20, 2023 8:29 AM in response to BDAqua

Thanks a lot for the answer BDAqua!


Booting from cmd+alt+r did the trick!!


I did not know the difference between cmd+r and cmd+alt+r. Apple websites only offer many commands to try depending on the CPU, but without clearly identifying their purpose (as feedback).


Holding alt at startup was booting into internet recovery for some reason, but nothing like cmd+alt+r.


With the aim of learning from this, can you tell me what exactly do: cmd+r , cmd+alt+r and alt (leading to recovery mode)?


Issue fixed in 1 reply!


Thank you so much!!!



B

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User profile for user: Burialfaith
Burialfaith Author
User level: Level 1
7 points

Nov 21, 2023 10:16 AM in response to BDAqua

Greetings BDAqua,


Thanks for the previous reply.


The issue is solved, but if I may ask, could you elaborate at maximum what is the difference between cmd+r, alt+cmd+r and shift+alt+cmd+r; such as what hardware components are involved in producing the GUI of recovery mode and where the software ran is comming from in these 3 cases?


So far, I can only guess that cmd+r uses the bios equivalent on Mac to produce the recovery mode which will be temporarily written on the HDD (or RAM?) while alt+cmd+r would download the recovery software from Apple servers and thus produces a newer version of recovery mode.


Thanks a lot in advance for helping me understanding the basics about Mac OS recovery mode.


Best regards,

Take care,



B


P.S. I was able to create a working bootable MacOS USB key on the MBP2012 from the very same .dmg file downloaded on the Apple website while that file could not produce a bootable USB key when created from TransMac or DMG2ISO on Windows. Thus, this suggest that these two softwares on Windows (TransMac and DMG2ISO) aren’t working properly. For other users reading this thread, DONT USE TRANSMAC OR DMG2ISO to create bootable USB key of MacOS El Capitain or Sierra.

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User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
245,303 points

Nov 21, 2023 10:23 AM in response to Burialfaith

Great news it's solved B, I do not know why 1 method works and another does not, I can only note that Apple gas tighter up who or what Macs can do what, & have noted what seems to work for many.


And they definitely are trying to stamp out Windows doing it to get rid of all the Hackintoshes I suspect.


Take care my friend! :)

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
60,452 points

Nov 21, 2023 1:14 PM in response to Burialfaith

The older macOS installers downloaded as .dmg files are not bootable images, nor do they contain the actual installer. The .dmg file contains an executable file which will extract the real installer from within the executable file bundle.


Even then, I have not seen of any recent success stories on this forum for people using any Windows based options for creating a bootable macOS USB installer. Apple's installers are a complete mess when it comes to creating bootable USB installers. The actual command line utility within the installer actually picks out various sections from the installer app to store on the USB stick and either copies some boot files from a secret location in the app or creates them, then must bless them so the USB stick appears bootable. Apple has changed the internal layout of items within the installer app over the years so any online instructions from even a year ago may now be obsolete. I recall instructions for manually extracting & creating a bootable macOS 10.11 USB installer....those instructions were no longer valid a year later, although someone found a work around, but even that work around is probably no longer any good.


FYI, if you are going to erase your Mac, then I highly recommend you create & keep on hand a bootable macOS USB installer so you will be able to restore your Mac since Recovery Mode & Internet Recovery Mode may be gone in the future....there have been a lot of reports that many older Macs are no longer able to have macOS reinstalled through local or Internet Recovery Mode, unless Apple quietly fixed their servers recently. You can always create a bootable raw image file from the USB stick (or point the command line tool to a writable .dmg file).


Also, to install older versions of macOS such as 10.7 Lion (assuming they are still available through Internet Recovery Mode), you need to set the system date to some time in 2017 since the installers' certificates have expired. For Jan. 2, 2017 @ 11:33am:

date  -u  0102113317


or maybe will also work:

date  -u  010211332017




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MBP 2012 won’t reinstall OS via recovery mode and bootable USB key created from Windows aren’t detected

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