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I logged out of my iCloud, and deleted my hard drive per Apples instructions. When I try to go reinstall OS X from the image on the hard drive, it tries to validate via the internet. I DO have internet access and it IS connected. Yet when it tries to validate it, it just returns a random error. The error message is:
How do I reinstall the OS?
Try connecting the laptop directly to the router using an Ethernet cable for a faster & more reliable connection.
It is possible the hard drive is failing so it is unable to download the installer to the laptop's hard drive. Do you have a USB drive large enough that you can attempt to install macOS from Recovery Mode? Do you still have your original OSX installer DVD which shipped with the computer? You can run the Apple Hardware Test. I can provide instructions for creating a bootable Linux USB drive to check the health of the hard drive if you want.
If your Mac cannot boot to the internal drive, then you will need access to another Mac to create the bootable macOS USB installer.
If so, then download the macOS 10.11 El Capitan installer from here (available outside of the App Store):
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT206886
Create a bootable macOS USB installer using these instructions:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
Try connecting the laptop directly to the router using an Ethernet cable for a faster & more reliable connection.
It is possible the hard drive is failing so it is unable to download the installer to the laptop's hard drive. Do you have a USB drive large enough that you can attempt to install macOS from Recovery Mode? Do you still have your original OSX installer DVD which shipped with the computer? You can run the Apple Hardware Test. I can provide instructions for creating a bootable Linux USB drive to check the health of the hard drive if you want.
If your Mac cannot boot to the internal drive, then you will need access to another Mac to create the bootable macOS USB installer.
If so, then download the macOS 10.11 El Capitan installer from here (available outside of the App Store):
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT206886
Create a bootable macOS USB installer using these instructions:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
Macintosh HD is a proper Boot Drive in the correct format.
MacOS Base system is an Installer image, but whether it is still good is unknown. You seem to be telling me that it is NOT still good, because it gives you an error.
Do you have another Mac? if you do, you could always download again, so deleting this image would not be a hardship.
If you can not get this to "go" just trying again, I suggest you delete macOS Base system and try again. It should download "live" and install directly.
Users have found that old saved copies of MacOS installers have expired certificates, and will need to be obtained again.
What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac - Apple Support
How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - Apple Support
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If macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later has never been installed on this Mac, Option-Command-R installs the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available. And Shift-Option-Command-R isn't available.
any version of El Capitan on a Mac that dis not SHIP with El Capitan is only available tagged with YOUR Apple-ID. unless you intend to give them access to your Apple-ID,
Apple recommends you install the "shipped in the box" version and call it a day.
Thanks but neither of those suggestions worked, I already tried those. I need it to reinstall he mac OS X El Capitan thats on the hard drive partition. It always wants to download a new version of the OS instead o installing from the hard drive.
Thats all I want to do is install the OS that came with it, Im not even sue what version that is. I don't have a cd so I need it to install from the disk image. None of the '3-finger salute' options will do this. Any other ideas?
I rebooted per the instructions of using the Shift-Option-⌘-R to get to the macon utilities. And erased my hard drive from there (but not the partition holding the OS image). I then tried to use the 'Reinstall macOS' option but that doesn't work because it wants to download it from the web and that always returns an error. How do I reinstall the OS from the hard drive partition? Assuming thats actually what it is.
I can't download an installer, that is what keeps failing. It like OS is so old Apple doesn't support it anymore and doesn't allow a download of it. And my other Mac does not have a cd drive. So even If I could download it I couldn't get it to this old mac.
As for the base System not being good, I have no idea. How can I force the reinstall from the Base System, everytime I try to reinstall it ALWAYS tries to just download a copy of some OS (I don't even know what version of OS)
Try Erasing the MacOS Base system and see if it will work. maybe there is a name clash that precludes downloading.
You can use an external drive to share files from one Mac to another. USB is slow, but it will work.
Did you boot from Recovery to do the ERASE of the disk, or did you erase using a different method?
Please post a screenshot showing what Disk Utility shows now.
Or launch Terminal and type:
diskutil list
and post the output
OK that screen says your Recovery HD is alive and well.
Now click on Disk Utility and report what its shows is the state of your drive(s).
How do I reinstall Mac OS X on my MacBook pro 2009 (from the OS image on the hard drive) so it can be sold?