upgrade from snow leopard, Imac 2009

[jmjo]

Hello

I'm struggling to upgrade an old Imac from 2009 from snow leopard to El Capitan (before jumping to Sierra).

Downloaded ElCapitan from apple web page, go down the road to the installer app in the application folder and then the usual issue iwth dates, file corrupted etc... Tried many dates without any luck.

So my ida was to move to a fresh install, via USB.

Followed the apple official El capitan USB bootable usb key creation to the point of a nice failed to erase the disk (error -9999,0).
Tried two different USb and one external disk with teh same "success".

This is rhe only mac I have "in house", PC with windows or linux.
Tried the transmac way but again the USB is not "bootable".

what can i do, any magical trick ?

Best regards

JM

 

[GGJstudios]

There is no need to upgrade to interim versions. You can directly install the most recent version that your iMac supports.

 

[jmjo]

Hello.

That would be great but anywhere I look, from snow leopard I have to jump to Yosemite or el capitan and then to sierra or high sierra.

If I can make the jump to sierra in one go, that would be great, but how....

And I don' care of erasing the all drive.
Nothing left.

 

[GGJstudios]

How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

Download and install current or previous versions of the Mac operating system on compatible Mac computers.

support.apple.com

 

[jmjo]

Hello

Monterey will surely be a nice optipn, but on a A1311 from late 2009, i doubt that it will install.

I only have one Imac on snow leopard.
I'm on this subject since weeks trying upgrades from yosemite, el capitan with no luck. (the (in)famous corrupted message due to date issues. no real reliable solution)
Trying to make a bootable USB to erase the disk and make a clean install. No way, no success.
Just found one that works from Snow leopard but got an error message when launching the process itself.

I'm just looking for a reliable way to upgrade this old machine to Sierra or high sierra, even by cleaning the actual disk.

I'm 57, used to computer since the 80's. This is the first time I see so much hurdle to do what take me 20 min on any PC with linux.
I hope that someone knows how to achieve this simple task. I can't imagine if the machine was upgraded years ago and no system backup made.....

 

[GGJstudios]

Monterey will surely be a nice optipn, but on a A1311 from late 2009, i doubt that it will install.

Sorry, I posted the wrong link. Try this: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683

 

[jmjo]

Hello.

Of course that's what I did first.
The outcome is the (in)famous date issue that makes the all process failed.
I've tried many dates options with the very same result at the end.
I've also tried to go via bootable USB, but again it failed during the launch of the upgrade.

What 'i'm loking for is realiabe way to install sierra or high sierra on the Imac, even by erasing the HDD.
and until now, I've not fn a way to make it.
Remember that the only mac I have is this one under snow leopard.

 

[CoastalOR]

Hello.

Of course that's what I did first.
The outcome is the (in)famous date issue that makes the all process failed.
I've tried many dates options with the very same result at the end.
I've also tried to go via bootable USB, but again it failed during the launch of the upgrade.

What 'i'm loking for is realiabe way to install sierra or high sierra on the Imac, even by erasing the HDD.
and until now, I've not fn a way to make it.
Remember that the only mac I have is this one under snow leopard.

You can't go directly to Sierra or High Sierra from a Mac running Snow Leopard as shown in the link in post #6. You must install Yosemite or El Capitan first, then Sierra or High Sierra can be installed.

Here is a thread that discussed the issues with El Capitan and Sierra installs:

"not a valid volume mount point" Can't make bootable drive

I have downloaded El Capitan and have formatted my 8gb usb drive and have partitioned and have typed the command in terminal and every single time I get the error message "Untitled is not a valid volume mount point". My drive is titled Untitled so it isn't any problem with that syntax to my...

forums.macrumors.com

Have you tried to use Disk Utility to run First Aid to verify you internal disk has no problems?

Have you tried to install Yosemite?

 

[jmjo]

Hello

Thanks for the advices and the link.
On a snow leopard, createinstallmedia do not work.
and the installer for yosemite or le capitan gives the same certificate date issue if used according to apple.

So upgrading to Yosemite is not even yet achieved.
Tried this
Make a bootable El Capitan drive from Snow Leopard - pomme - fanpop
wich gives a bootable El capitan USB, that crashes when ending the first step of the install (chance, before touching the HDD)

Create OS X El Capitan USB bootable drive

How to create USB installation flash drive with OS X 10.11 El Capitan with createinstallmedia, Terminal, Finder and DiskMaker X applications

www.file-extensions.org

going from the terminal command. second instruction failed.

I'm a bit desperate.

JM

 

[CoastalOR]

Hello

Thanks for the advices and the link.
On a snow leopard, createinstallmedia do not work.
and the installer for yosemite or le capitan gives the same certificate date issue if used according to apple.

So upgrading to Yosemite is not even yet achieved.
Tried this
Make a bootable El Capitan drive from Snow Leopard - pomme - fanpop
wich gives a bootable El capitan USB, that crashes when ending the first step of the install (chance, before touching the HDD)

Create OS X El Capitan USB bootable drive

How to create USB installation flash drive with OS X 10.11 El Capitan with createinstallmedia, Terminal, Finder and DiskMaker X applications

www.file-extensions.org

going from the terminal command. second instruction failed.

I'm a bit desperate.

JM

I'll ask again, did you have Disk Utility First Aid check your internal drive?

Why do you need a installer USB?

Instead of creating a USB installer:
NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP BEFORE TRYING TO INSTALL A NEW OS.
Have you tried launching the installer app in the Applications folder after you download the El Capitan or Yosemite dmg and create the installer app?

 

[jmjo]

Hello

I'll try the disk first aid today.

And yes that's that's waht i've done first

download the dmg from apple web site.
open, open pkg, launch the installer from the app .

and eacht time i had the same issue :

tried many trick on date, but it looks like i did not found the right one.

what if we condiser erasing the HDD and install sierra or high sierra as fresh install ?

assuming i only have this mac and pc (linux and windows)
do I need to have acces to another mac (more recnt ) to make a proper full system installer and if yes how ?

thanks for your help.

JM

 

[jmjo]

Hello

I ran the disk utility, no health problems as far as I can see.

JM

 

[CoastalOR]

Hello

I'll try the disk first aid today.

And yes that's that's waht i've done first

download the dmg from apple web site.
open, open pkg, launch the installer from the app .

and eacht time i had the same issue : View attachment 2000233

tried many trick on date, but it looks like i did not found the right one.

what if we condiser erasing the HDD and install sierra or high sierra as fresh install ?

assuming i only have this mac and pc (linux and windows)
do I need to have acces to another mac (more recnt ) to make a proper full system installer and if yes how ?

thanks for your help.

JM

I have never tried to install a newer OS by skipping the minimum OS requirements by erasing the HDD and installing the newer OS with a USB installer. It might work, but there might also be some firmware patches from Yosemite or El Capitan necessary to install Sierra or High Sierra properly.

Here are the requirements to install El Capitan:

OS X El Capitan - Technical Specifications - Apple Support

support.apple.com

Do you have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 installed?

I have never had any luck creating a bootable USB installer without using a Mac. If you do use a newer Mac to download Sierra or High Sierra to make a USB installer then the Mac will need to be capable of running the requested Mac OS. Apple's software checks to see if the Mac can run the OS before the OS can be downloaded.

I use Apple's instructions when creating a USB installer:

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

Use an external drive or secondary volume as a startup disk from which to install macOS.

support.apple.com

 

[Procrastinus]

This may be silly - but it caught me out for a bit! You MUST use Safari browser for the link in GGJstudios' post #6. It will not work for Firefox. Using Safari the whole upgrade to El Capitan was seamless on my iMac 8,1