Can't enter recovery on 2008 MacBook Pro 17"

Question

I'm trying to install Windows 10 on its own partition, based on this guide.

When I try to install the "rEFInd" utility, it warns me that it can't install because SIP is active, and that I should reboot to recovery and install it from there.

But when I try to reboot with Command-R or Command-Option-R I get the icon below, then a normal boot.

The MBP is running 10.11.4.

As requested by David Anderson:

MBP:~ zeev$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *240.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS mbp1                    179.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                60.0 GB    disk0s4

MBP:~ zeev$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
Disk: /dev/disk0    geometry: 29185/255/63 [468862128 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>
 2: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 -  349995408] HFS+        
 3: AB 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 350405048 -    1269536] Darwin Boot 
 4: 0B 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 351676416 -  117184512] Win95 FAT-32

MBP:~ zeev$ sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0
gpt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         MBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6         
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  349995408      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  350405048    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  351674584       1832         
  351676416  117184512      4  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
  468860928       1167         
  468862095         32         Sec GPT table
  468862127          1         Sec GPT header

Answer 1

1. When you are running 10.11 and you need to restore the Recovery partition, read here how to do that: http://osxdaily.com/2016/07/03/recreate-recovery-partition-mac/
2. do not try to install Windows without Bootcamp !! You do not need to disable SiP when you install Windows correctly.

Answer 2

Answer to Your Posted Question

The output you posted does not indicate any errors in the partition tables. Therefore, I do not know why you can not boot from the internal drive Recovery partition. Some possible causes

• The GPT attributes are incorrectly set for the Recovery partition. The correct value is 0x2000000000000. You can the command gdisk to view the attributes and correct any errors.
• The Recovery partition filesystem has been corrupted.
• The Recovery partition files have been corrupted.

Actually you do not have to boot to the Recovery partition to disable SIP. The web page Getting rEFInd form Sourceforge has a link where you can download "A USB flash drive image file". You can then use the dd command to copy the refind-flashdrive-0.10.4.img file to a USB flash drive. The exact commands that I entered are shown below. Caution: You may need to substitute disk1 with a different device.

cd ~/Downloads/refind-flashdrive-0.10.4
diskutil unmountdisk disk1
sudo dd if=refind-flashdrive-0.10.4.img of=/dev/disk1

You then can restart your Mac and hold down the option key to invoke the Startup Manage. Select the USB device icon labeled "EFI Boot" as shown below.

Next, select the shield icon labeled "Change SIP Policy", as shown below.

You get the pop up message "System Integrity Proection is disabled (0x77)", as shown below.

Previous Answer Regarding Installing Windows

You do not need rEFInd to install any version of Windows on any Mac that can officially or unofficially support the version of Windows you are trying to install.

If you examine the Apple web site About EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Mac computers, you can determine the mapping between the MacBook Pro models and identifiers. I listed a few below. This should clarify which entry in the table "Boot Camp requirements by Mac model" belongs to your model Mac.

MacBook Pro (17-inch)              = MacBookPro1,2
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Core 2 Duo)  = MacBookPro2,1
MacBook Pro (17-inch, 2.4 GHz)     = MacBookPro3,1
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2008)  = MacBookPro4,1

Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5722 is the wrong version for your model Mac. You should be using version 4.0.4033.

If your Mac can run Windows 10, the you will probably need a working optical (DVD) drive. If yours is missing or inoperative then you can still attempt to install but the procedure difficult. You can not use a USB flash drive Windows 10 installer.

If you can not boot to your OS X Recovery partition, then either you do not have a recovery partition of the partition tables are messed up.

Your Mac is to old to use OS X Internet recovery. So using Option-Command-R is pointless.

Generally, the "Boot Camp Support Software" can be download to a USB flash drive though the use of the Boot Camp Assistant application. For the older model Macs, this software is often identical to the "Boot Camp Support Software" you would download using the Safari application for an old version of Windows.

Therefore, most likely you can install Window 10 on you model Mac without the aid of the Boot Camp Assistant application. So if this application is giving you problems, the you may be better of not using it.