So the original drive in my early 2015 MBP died, so I installed an NVMe adapter to put in a new WD Blue 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD. I was able to erase the new blade just fine using disk utility into APFS format and GUID, so I knew that the drive was good (also double checked with First Aid and it was OK). I already had a USB with a High Sierra installer on it, but I got the “This copy of the Install macOS Mojave.app application is damaged, and can’t be used to install macOS.” error when I tried to install from it. The original macOS I was using on my MBP was Mojave so I downloaded a fresh copy of it from the App store and created another bootable USB using my Mac Pro 5,1 (which also runs Mojave), and I knew that this copy was good when after it's creation it came up with the installer screen. So I again tried with this USB to install Mojave onto my MBP and once again got the same “This copy of the Install macOS Mojave.app application is damaged, and can’t be used to install macOS.” message.
Sites that mention this error say you can solve it by using a fresh copy of the installer (which I have), or trying to reset your date back (which I am unable to do on the MBP as there is no macOS on it!), so I am stuck.
I saw a similar thread on here from @spencersmitty trying to install a Samsung NVMe into a 2017 iMac, but he was coming up with the error "An error occurred validating the installer data. The download is either damaged or incomplete." Unfortunately in his case he was never able to solve the issue. I'm hoping my situation may be different? I find it hard to believe no one else has been able to do a fresh M.2 NVMe upgrade of an older Mac system?
Thanks for looking!
Edit: I'm not at home atm to try this but I did come across another site on someone who was able to solve it for their 2012 MBP. I'm not quite sure on this or if it could apply to me, but if this means anything to anyone if you could further elaborate?
"I managed to solve it myself by going into recovery mode, trying but failing to install Mojave, then going to Disk Utility, view > show all volumes, having some files that said something to the effect of “EAS install files” (I can’t quite remember the name) burned to one of the internal SSDs. I then exited Disk Utility, went Apple Logo > Start- up Disk, & booted it up from one of the SSDs.
It then reinstalled fine, but it took about 6 hours in total."
Sites that mention this error say you can solve it by using a fresh copy of the installer (which I have), or trying to reset your date back (which I am unable to do on the MBP as there is no macOS on it!), so I am stuck.
I saw a similar thread on here from @spencersmitty trying to install a Samsung NVMe into a 2017 iMac, but he was coming up with the error "An error occurred validating the installer data. The download is either damaged or incomplete." Unfortunately in his case he was never able to solve the issue. I'm hoping my situation may be different? I find it hard to believe no one else has been able to do a fresh M.2 NVMe upgrade of an older Mac system?
Thanks for looking!
Edit: I'm not at home atm to try this but I did come across another site on someone who was able to solve it for their 2012 MBP. I'm not quite sure on this or if it could apply to me, but if this means anything to anyone if you could further elaborate?
"I managed to solve it myself by going into recovery mode, trying but failing to install Mojave, then going to Disk Utility, view > show all volumes, having some files that said something to the effect of “EAS install files” (I can’t quite remember the name) burned to one of the internal SSDs. I then exited Disk Utility, went Apple Logo > Start- up Disk, & booted it up from one of the SSDs.
It then reinstalled fine, but it took about 6 hours in total."
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