I picked up a 2009 17" mac pro that had os yosimite on it and when i attempted to upgrade to el capitan i booted to a prohibitory symbol, circle with line thru it..i do not have a backup of yosimite saved. Ive tried to restore the computer , control/r reinstall os, but it keeps trying to install el capitan which appearantly is not compatible with this mac, hence the prohibitory symbol..any advice on how to clear the pending update and restore to a compatible os ? The cd drive does not work but i can purchase a external if needed, and i do have a snow leopard disk to boot/install this os, as its supposed to be compatible, then upgrade back to yosimite.will this work? Any other suggestions?
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Failed update
- Thread starter baldheadedfatboy
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I'm guessing that your mac pro has a DVD drive. Assuming it does, you should boot up from an install dvd and try to repair your startup disk. You can find Disk Utility under Utilities in the menu bar of the DVD installer. But before trying that, did you make sure your MP can support El Capitan? If you type your Mac's serial # on this website it should tell you the max supported OS. If there's no info on that site or the serial number is too small to read (Apple prints them really small!) use this site instead.
Good Luck!
-PowerPCFan
Good Luck!
-PowerPCFan
A Mac Pro doesn't have a built-in display and therefore there's no such thing as a "17" Mac Pro". Are you using a Mac Pro with external 17" display, or a 17" MacBook Pro?