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I finally got my hands on a second-hand MacBook Pro (Early 2011). However, the disk is corrupted and doesn't boot, and Internet Recovery proves ineffective as the OS X Lion Setup fails. This is the only somewhat-modern Mac that I own, so I tried to make a USB installer via windows. I used a genuine Apple install DMG (Located Here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683), and when I go and restore the USB with the DMG file I only see a .pkg file, in place of the installer files. It also doesn't show up in the boot menu of the Macbook.

I have seen other people have success with this method, so I'm not seeing what I'm doing wrong. (See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OpF0jJMJzI) What should I do differently?

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  • Any clue what year MacBook Pro? Models made from 2010 on can be capable of installing macOS (OS X) from the internet. If your Mac is older that 2010, the consider either Windows or a Linux. – David Anderson Dec 27 '20 at 4:51
  • @David Anderson It is a Early 2011 Macbook Pro. – ElectricalHobbiest Dec 27 '20 at 5:07
  • There a key combinations that will allow reinstalling the operating systems such as: Command (⌘)-R, Option-Command (⌘)-R and Shift-Option-Command (⌘)-R. See the apple document How to reinstall macOS. Did you try any combination that would download a version more current than Lion? – David Anderson Dec 27 '20 at 12:48
  • The last officially supported version of macOS available for your Mac is High Sierra (macOS 10.13.6). While this version of macOS is still useful, the version will be to old to support the current Microsoft Office. You probably can install the current versions of Windows 10 and Ubuntu Linux. Windows 10 will not be a free install unless someone already installed a licensed Windows 10 in the past. If that was true, then you can reinstall for free. Installing High Sierra will insure your Mac has all the current firmware updates. – David Anderson Dec 27 '20 at 13:13
  • @David Anderson I'll try to reply to both of your comments here. Yes, I have tried Internet Recovery, but I'm met with an error saying: "Cannot install the additional components". (See More: ifixit.com/Answers/View/601830/re+installing+OSX+problems) I also need this MacBook Pro for some XCode Development, and other MacOS-Specific tasks, so running Windows or Linux is not a viable option. – ElectricalHobbiest Dec 27 '20 at 15:21
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I found a quicker and easier way to do this, so I'll share it here.

I found a website called https://bootableinstaller.com/, and it works like magic. If you run the script (Included with download), it converts the installer DMG into a bootable ISO.

As for my original problem:

It looks like I tried to flash the installer DMG without unpacking the .PKG file properly. The script mentioned above does that for me.

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