Cannot find drive to reinstall OS

spursfan09 wrote:

MBP mid 2014 to sell. I had Mojave OS installed. [...] command/R [...] I was given the option to reinstall Yosemite

If you already had Mojave, why did Command-R suggest a very old Yosemite? Maybe your Command-R local Recovery is not properly updated.

So: try to boot to Internet Recovery via Option-Command-R which should suggest the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.

Don’t spend any money trying to get this obsolete Mac to run. Also don’t spend too much time. This eleven year old Mac is about ready for the recycle bin.

If you have access to any other Mac that is capable of running macOS 11 Big Sur, then I suggest you use that to create a bootable usb installer for Big Sur.

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

Installing anything older or may be problematic and Big Sur will give the old computer the greatest longevity.

EDIT - the other Mac doesn’t have to be running Big Sur, it just needs to be Big Sur compatible.

MacOS Mojave was running on the drive, so it is formatted with APFS. That format is unknown to macOS Yosemite so you may have to use Disk Utility, while booted into recovery mode, and reformat the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with the GUID partition scheme and give it the name "Macintosh HD".

IMPORTANT - oncy you launch Disk Utility in recovery mode, you may have to click View > Show All Devices so that you can select the drive device to reformat, and not just the volumes.

Use Disk Utility to erase an Intel-based Mac - Apple Support

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

However, reinstalling the very old Yosemite OS may be problematic, so again, I suggest creating a bootable usb installer for Big Sur.

Matti Haveri wrote:

If you already had Mojave, why did Command-R suggest a very old Yosemite? Maybe your Command-R local Recovery is not properly updated.

No idea, but this happens with a lot of Macs. I've personally encountered it with multiple Macs in my organization.

So: try to boot to Internet Recovery via Option-Command-R which should suggest the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.

Definitely worth a try, but it is likely to boot to Yosemite as well.

D.I. Johnson wrote:

MacOS Mojave was running on the drive, so it is formatted with APFS. That format is unknown to macOS Yosemite so you may have to use Disk Utility, while booted into recovery mode, and reformat the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with the GUID partition scheme and give it the name "Macintosh HD".

IMPORTANT - oncy you launch Disk Utility in recovery mode, you may have to click View > Show All Devices so that you can select the drive device to reformat, and not just the volumes.

Unfortunately Disk Utility for macOS 10.6 to 10.10 works a bit differently than it does with macOS 10.11/10.12 and 10.13+ (yes it changed two times there so there are technically three variations). The old Disk Utility with macOS 10.6-10.10 actually did partitioning & formatting instead of just erasing. Partitioning & formatting is required to destroy the partition table & unknown drive layout/file system. Here is a very nice article showing how to do this:

https://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/formatting/Mac_Formatting_6-10_R3.pdf

HWTech wrote:

So: try to boot to Internet Recovery via Option-Command-R which should suggest the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.

Definitely worth a try, but it is likely to boot to Yosemite as well.

I guess resetting PRAM might help if there is unexpected behavior. Or maybe the Local Recovery is not somehow properly updated when the macOS was upgraded. AFAIR Carbon Copy Cloner could delete and re-install Local Recovery.

a) Internet Recovery Shift-Command-Option-R should boot to the oldest available macOS.

b) Local Recovery Command-R and Internet Recovery Option-Command-R should boot to the latest supported macOS.

I tested some of my Macs that each have been cleanly installed to the latest supported macOS and they behave as expected, so they boot to these macOS versions via those Recovery a-b options:

Mac mini 2018: Mojave - Sequoia

MacBook Air 2015: Yosemite - Monterey

MacBook 2010: Lion - High Sierra

HWTech wrote:

[...]

Unfortunately Disk Utility for macOS 10.6 to 10.10 works a bit differently than it does with macOS 10.11/10.12 and 10.13+ (yes it changed two times there so there are technically three variations). The old Disk Utility with macOS 10.6-10.10 actually did partitioning & formatting instead of just erasing. Partitioning & formatting is required to destroy the partition table & unknown drive layout/file system. Here is a very nice article showing how to do this:

https://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/formatting/Mac_Formatting_6-10_R3.pdf

I don't know how you keep track of the many OS variations for things like this over the years. 🙂

I know the author's drive needs to be reformatted, but I hadn't accounted for the change in Apple's guidance that instructs to "Erase" the drive, a function that the older OS doesn't have, as you pointed out.

Still, if I were in the author's position, I'd see if I could build a bootable installer for Big Sur with another Mac and use that.

Though with the guidance you've provided they may well get some flavor of macOS installed. And of course, with that done they could then use that machine to create a bootable installer to keep around for future use, if ever needed - something I do myself.

Matti Haveri wrote:

HWTech wrote:

So: try to boot to Internet Recovery via Option-Command-R which should suggest the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.

Definitely worth a try, but it is likely to boot to Yosemite as well.

I guess resetting PRAM might help if there is unexpected behavior. Or maybe the Local Recovery is not somehow properly updated when the macOS was upgraded.

I was never able to find a way to resolve it...PRAM & SMC Reset did not make any difference. Network connection (wired or wireless) made no difference. I also never tried testing the system after reinstalling macOS to see if it still had the issue or if the reinstall somehow magically fixed it. It was never enough of a problem or need for me to dig into it.

AFAIR Carbon Copy Cloner could delete and re-install Local Recovery.

I think CCC requires a copy of the local recovery partition. CCC typically creates a backup of the existing local recovery partition when making a bootable clone of the macOS boot drive which can be used to recreate it.