Nuclear Options for OS recovery/installation?

ccvsgod wrote:

• 3rd time's a charm? My threads keep getting deleted in the middle of getting good advice. So I guess I can't mention the (Shmird Shmarty Shmoftware) that the previous owner had installed on the (model redacted) MBP I bought from him, but I have a failed, half-installed upgrade. Regardless of fault or blame, I just need to reinstall a functioning previous OS. If I mention the generation of MBP, it seems something or someone here will kick me out of line for help.

I don't know why they're deleting your posts. This is a wonderful case study for why one shouldn't install those "OS patcher" utilities.

Recovery Mode immediately sees/connects to wifi (since it goes around the faulty OS) but when it gets to the installation point to select a destination disk, there is none to select.

I think you're getting ahead of yourself. The installation is dead, completely dead. You aren't going to be able to install a new operating system. Your current system, as well as the recovery partition, is corrupted. First, you'll have to erase the hard drive. In order to do that, you'll have to setup a bootable USB.

I've only done a bootable USB once, so I don't remember if it has a standard recovery volume or not. Maybe it doesn't need it? Anyway, that's probably your only viable option.

I'm down to the idea of physically taking the drive out (1tb SSD) buying a new one

Your computer isn't upgradeable at all. I'm not sure if it is old enough to support an OEM pull replacement or 3rd party drive.

throw out the entire computer

It is 10 years old.

was running like a dream until I regrettably followed the "System Upgrade Available" prompt in Settings.

To clarify, nothing in any of those upgrade prompts caused the problem. You are the author of your own misery. If you want to point the blame, you can point it to the developer of your hack tool and all the internet misinformation that told you how wonderful and painless it was. Don't believe what you see on the internet. The internet isn't true.

These days, virtually every post I make must include those last two sentences. Not that anybody ever cares to read them or follow the advice therein.

Is there's a Terminal command to force a factory reset with period-correct OS?

No. Your computer is dead. It's too old to support DFU restore. You should be able to boot it from an external or USB. I'm not sure about a bootable USB since that's a special-purpose device. It may not have the facilities to completely erase the hard drive. But a regular old external bootable drive should work (but only because the computer is old to begin with).

• If I delete the offending turd party software, will that remove the obstruction or make it worse?

That's a moot point. I'm guessing the system is partially functional or something? I don't know if you can remove the hack. If you can, then it definitely won't boot even as far as it does now.

• Can I download an OS on a 2nd computer to create a bootable external USB drive without that computer trying to install that downloaded OS itself, and me losing TWO Macs in 24hrs?

That would be the first thing to try.

• if I remove the SSD and run it through an external adapter as if it's an external USB drive, will that give me any more authority to change/fix/format it (via a working Mac)?

The ideal solution (in this specific case) would be an external boot drive. You should be able to identify the internal and completely wipe it - down to the bare metal. Please do not attempt to just delete one of the many system volumes and then come back here and say it didn't work. Turn on all the hidden options in Disk Utility and make sure there is absolutely nothing left on the drive.

Then you can just download the appropriate OS installer and run setup as normal.

ccvsgod wrote:

Is there's a Terminal command to force a factory reset with period-correct OS?

Not to my knowledge, but you should not need one. you should be able to boot into recovery by starting the Mac while holding down the command+r keys on your keyboard and erasing it from there entirely.

click here ➜ How to start up from macOS Recovery - Apple Support

• If I delete the offending turd party software, will that remove the obstruction or make it worse?

Hard to say, since we have no idea what that software may have done.

• Can I download an OS on a 2nd computer to create a bootable external USB drive without that computer trying to install that downloaded OS itself, and me losing TWO Macs in 24hrs?

Yes. You can download an installer for macOS onto a compatibe Mac and make a bootable USB drive. It should have no effect on the Mac you do this on.

click here ➜ Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

• if I remove the SSD and run it through an external adapter as if it's an external USB drive, will that give me any more authority to change/fix/format it (via a working Mac)?

Yes, you should also be able to install macOS onto the externally connected drive if that's what you want to do.

With that said, and without precisely knowing what the offending previous posts had that got them deleted, I'm going to venture a guess that it has a non-supported version of macOs installed for its specific model / year.

The model / year alone, should not cause issues, or removal of the post, but the non-supported version of macOS together with the model would, since those types of modifications cannot be discussed here nor supported in any way, so Apple does tend to remove posts that ask for help in those scenarios.

ccvsgod wrote:

It wasn’t my hack but the previous owner’s and this was me finding that out the hard way. I’ll try the USB boot and may need to follow up here, but fingers crossed.

Try performing a PRAM Reset (hold for at least three chimes if possible, later USB-C models may only allow two chimes at most). If the hack involved installing a later version of macOS, then it seems that hack modifies the NVRAM to such an extent that it prevents booting the actual supported versions of macOS.

Hopefully after the PRAM Rest you can use a bootable macOS USB installer or perhaps Internet Recovery Mode (Command + Option + R) if using a Late-2009 or later Intel Mac.

<< I've only done a bootable USB once, so I don't remember if it has a standard recovery volume or not. Maybe it doesn't need it? >>

In recent MacOS, the bootable USB stick is a self-contained entity. It comes up with its MacOS Base System running Recovery. It allows the use of Disk Utility and Installer and the usual Utilities. It is eager to install its bundled MacOS version, but there is much more to it than a naked Installer.

ccvsgod wrote:

It wasn’t my hack but the previous owner’s and this was me finding that out the hard way.

That's unfortunate. Another reason to never buy a used Mac.