I'm thinking it's around a 2009ish vintage? It's not a unibody. But it does have a disk drive. It's got 5 USB ports, firewire, etc.

Anyway, pretty sure the drive is dead. Disk Utility won't fix it from Recovery mode. I Ran Diskwarrior, it repaired the directory but said SMART status failed. It just sits on the gray apple boot screen with the spinny thingie...forever. I booted into Safe mode and saw the big wave background so I guessed Mavericks. But that didn't work. It kept flipping from the wave to the gray screen to the wave, etc.

So I was going to replace the drive.

But ...
Where do I get Mavericks? I have an old installer, so that might work?
Once I get it (if needed), how do I get the OS onto an external? I tried Diskmaker but it won't run at all in Big Sur.
After that, I'm assuming I just crack the case and swap the drives?
Is there a better way?

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Try this page at Apple for more info.

[support.apple.com]

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Aloha, Ken


“I have developed significant attachments to several members even though I wouldn't recognize them if I sat next to one on a park bench. I'm often tempted when in an airport to walk around, hollering "The Løpe", to see if anyone other than the Homeland Security people will acknowledge me. ” - The Løpe

“Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people. The general government ... can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy, an oligarchy, an aristocracy, or any other despotic or oppressive form, so long as there shall remain any virtue in the body of the people.” — George Washington

“Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private virtue, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.” — John Adams

“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” — Benjamin Franklin

"Every single terrible thing you see on Facebook — be it some sort of horrible right wing nonsense or a confusing and annoying product decision — is made in pursuit of growth. Every bit of damage that Meta has caused to the world has been either an act of ignorance or deliberate harm, at many times tweaking the product to make it harder or more annoying to use so that you will log onto Facebook or Instagram multiple times a day and spend as much time on there as possible." Ed Zitron

Shift-Option-Cmd-R

[support.apple.com]

How to get old versions of macOS

If your Mac isn't compatible with the latest macOS, you might be able to upgrade to an earlier macOS, such as macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, or High Sierra.


[support.apple.com]

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Finally, if the/an old installer fails with a notification it's corrupt, you may need to do Get Info and find the date it was created and set the Date/Time back to some point earlier than it.

I had to do this with a 'fresh' installer I had downloaded for some OS, and it worked.

The Mac ended up with the correct Date/Time.

I don't know if that was a result of the install, or it I reset it, but it worked.

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I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

Goes without saying the new drive should be a SSD...

Whats the daily use for this mac?

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

Quote
rich in distress
Shift-Option-Cmd-R

[support.apple.com]

Can you use that to reinstall the OS on an external drive or does it need to be internal?

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Quote
jdc
Goes without saying the new drive should be a SSD...

Whats the daily use for this mac?

I have an old 128gb OWC drive that I barely used that I planned on installing. It's a minimal install only being used as a Plex server. So basically it needs Plex installed and that's it.

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I’ve only done internal, but I guess it’s possible if the drive is mounted.

I would think you could do at least High Sierra on that.

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!#$@@$#!

never do yesterday or today what you can put off til tomorrow or next year.

Nope, it tops out at El Cap. At least without the dosdude fix.

Darn the Luck ! ! !
I just dosduded my MP3,1.
Went pretty sweet.
I am running it mostly as my Emby and Music (fka iTunes) server.
Occasionally as an adjunct Hadron collider or Illudium PU-36 Space Modulator.

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!#$@@$#!

never do yesterday or today what you can put off til tomorrow or next year.

I am getting ready to leave the country for over a month, but I'm pretty sure I have a Mavericks installer on a thumb drive in my collection. If you're still in need in the end of March, send me a PM.

I think I'm good. Thanks for the help.

I did the Cmd + Opt + R. And FINALLY got it back to recovery mode. FINALLY. I think it took about 30 minutes.

I was able to use Disk Utility to erase my external. Then I was able to reinstall Mavericks from the interwebs once I connected to wifi. It was installed on the external w/o a hitch. So now, I need to crack it open and make the external the internal. Good thing is, the old drive is still accessible so I can grab stuff off or maybe use MA to transfer settings and user stuff.

It's for my mom so the closer I can get it back to her "normal" the better. Again, thanks to everyone. This seemed like such a simple issue but after sitting down and looking at my available assets it became hard to puzzle out.

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