El Capitan bootable usb

NewToMac

Hi guys,

I have a Mac Mini Early 2009 and it looks like the HDD went out of business because after boot all I see is a folder with a question mark on it.
How am I going to install OS X after buying a new disk, because I wasn't smart enough to create the bootable USB when the Mac was running fine?
Apple Support told me that I cannot download an installation kit online, but I can create it from another Mac running El Capitan or an earlier OSX.

Can you help? Would you have (know somebody with) such an old OS X?

Thanks!

Doodah7

Do you have a Time Machine (or something similar) backup?

NewToMac

@Doodah7
Nothing whatsoever

MHP

NewToMac wrote: »

Hi guys,

Apple Support told me that I cannot download an installation kit online

You should be able to download El Capitan here:

https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1147835434?ls=1&mt=12

melchior1951

You can create a USB flash drive installer with any Mac. I created one myself for El Capitan recently on a Mac running Mojave.

See: https://www.macworld.com/article/2981585/how-to-make-a-bootable-os-x-10-11-el-capitan-installer-drive.html

NewToMac

Thank you both MHP and melchior1951
I got access to a new Mac today and tried to download El Capitan.
No luck, the message from Mac Store was that the purchase cannot be completed because El Capitan cannot be installed over a newer OS X version.

@melchior1951
How did you download El Capitan when running Mojave?

PaddyFagan

I don't _think_ it works from the app store, I think this link should work - https://support.apple.com/downloads/macos