SOLVED Bootable installer for Mavericks, on a machine running Catalina?

[mikejaz2]

Hi all. I have a mid-2014 vintage MacBook Pro that I just acquired. The system drive was wiped and a fresh install of Catalina (10.15.7) was done.

Unfortunately, I don't want Catalina. This machine originally shipped with Mavericks (10.9), and that's what I bought it for. I have old software that I still use that won't run on anything later than 10.9.5.

I'm trying the "Internet recovery" method, but so far, I get to the "Select the drive to install Mavericks to", and am given no choice of drives (which in itself is stupid, because there is only one drive in the machine). Any ideas here?

Also I'm trying to create a bootable installer, but that is a nightmare. Catalina won't allow me to launch the <<Install OS X Mavericks.app>> file in order to make to bootable flash drive. Gee, thanks Apple. Anyone have a workaround? Anyone know a way to boot this thing via an external drive?

Bueller?

 

[TonyAguila]

Hi all. I have a mid-2014 vintage MacBook Pro that I just acquired. The system drive was wiped and a fresh install of Catalina (10.15.7) was done.

Unfortunately, I don't want Catalina. This machine originally shipped with Mavericks (10.9), and that's what I bought it for. I have old software that I still use that won't run on anything later than 10.9.5.

I'm trying the "Internet recovery" method, but so far, I get to the "Select the drive to install Mavericks to", and am given no choice of drives (which in itself is stupid, because there is only one drive in the machine). Any ideas here?

Also I'm trying to create a bootable installer, but that is a nightmare. Catalina won't allow me to launch the <<Install OS X Mavericks.app>> file in order to make to bootable flash drive. Gee, thanks Apple. Anyone have a workaround? Anyone know a way to boot this thing via an external drive?

Bueller?

There is an article in Apple Support that details creating a bootable installer for OS X and macOS but it only goes back to El Capitan with a footnote regarding OS X Sierra or earlier. See if you can make sense of the instructions. I know it can be tricky. This assumes that you have a USB thumb drive. I think the minimum is 32 gigs, but 16 might be sufficient. It also assumes you have the installer file for Mavericks, which you already have, it seems. Here is the web link:

Create a bootable installer - Apple Support

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

support.apple.com

I have created installers for older versions but not as far back as Mavericks, on USB thumb drives, SD cards, and external USB SSDs. The main starting point is to format your installer medium as HFS+. Good luck!

 

[mikejaz2]

Right. I've done that process before.

The problem is that, with the wunnerful Catalina OS, you CAN'T even attempt to open an app it deems "unopenable"; which the "Install OSX Mavericks" app (which needs to be put on the flash drive with the actual OS) is. Unopenable, that is.

All is not lost, however. I found a USB 3 enclosure, and put the old computer's sys drive into it; restarted with Option...and the old computer mounted.

Now, to rid myself of the plague of "modern" OS on this laptop, which as I mentioned was purchased for its expressed (and designed) ability to run Mavericks.

Thanks for getting back to me.

 

[mikejaz2]

Right. I've done that process before.

The problem is that, with the wunnerful Catalina OS, you CAN'T even attempt to open an app it deems "unopenable"; which the "Install OSX Mavericks" app (which needs to be put on the flash drive with the actual OS) is. Unopenable, that is.

All is not lost, however. I found a USB 3 enclosure, and put the old computer's sys drive into it; restarted with Option...and the old computer mounted.

Now, to rid myself of the plague of "modern" OS on this laptop, which as I mentioned was purchased for its expressed (and designed) ability to run Mavericks.

Thanks for getting back to me.

And a follow up...you can bet yer bippy that as soon as the cloning of the iMac system drive to the MBP, I'll be creating a bootable installer for pretty much every OS release from Mountain Lion up to Sierra (eg, the OS that aren't available in the App Store anymore, get 'em at the Internet Archive).

 

[mikejaz2]

There is an article in Apple Support that details creating a bootable installer for OS X and macOS but it only goes back to El Capitan with a footnote regarding OS X Sierra or earlier. See if you can make sense of the instructions. I know it can be tricky. This assumes that you have a USB thumb drive. I think the minimum is 32 gigs, but 16 might be sufficient. It also assumes you have the installer file for Mavericks, which you already have, it seems. Here is the web link:

Create a bootable installer - Apple Support

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

support.apple.com

I have created installers for older versions but not as far back as Mavericks, on USB thumb drives, SD cards, and external USB SSDs. The main starting point is to format your installer medium as HFS+. Good luck!

Hey Tony, thanks for your reply.

I fixed it, and here's how:

1) after starting this thread, I hit the sack and got a decent nights' sleep;

2) I realized that I had a couple of aces in the hole...I had an old iMac backup on a USB3 drive (made using SuperDuper), as well as the rescued, functional system SSD from the dead iMac. It was a standard 2.5" form factor Crucial 1TB unit. First, to test my idea, I Option-restarted with the old backup plugged in...VOILA, the machine allowed me to start from the backup!

Next, I replaced the backup HDD with the iMac's rescued SSD, and Option-restarted again. Worked like a charm, and I had my iMac "back"!

Booted up SuperDuper, duped the iMac system over the MBP system (after formatting the internal drive as HFS+), and I got what I wanted...my iMac up and running on a new piece of hardware.

And I was able to make a Mavericks bootable installer by doing a little searching. Got the instructions from CNET (https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/how-to-create-a-bootable-os-x-mavericks-usb-install-drive/); and found the Mavericks OS installer on the Internet Archive (a resource EVERYONE should contribute to: https://archive.org/). If I ever need to do this again, it will be much simpler now.

 

[TonyAguila]

Hey Tony, thanks for your reply.

I fixed it, and here's how:

1) after starting this thread, I hit the sack and got a decent nights' sleep;

2) I realized that I had a couple of aces in the hole...I had an old iMac backup on a USB3 drive (made using SuperDuper), as well as the rescued, functional system SSD from the dead iMac. It was a standard 2.5" form factor Crucial 1TB unit. First, to test my idea, I Option-restarted with the old backup plugged in...VOILA, the machine allowed me to start from the backup!

Next, I replaced the backup HDD with the iMac's rescued SSD, and Option-restarted again. Worked like a charm, and I had my iMac "back"!

Booted up SuperDuper, duped the iMac system over the MBP system (after formatting the internal drive as HFS+), and I got what I wanted...my iMac up and running on a new piece of hardware.

And I was able to make a Mavericks bootable installer by doing a little searching. Got the instructions from CNET (https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/how-to-create-a-bootable-os-x-mavericks-usb-install-drive/); and found the Mavericks OS installer on the Internet Archive (a resource EVERYONE should contribute to: https://archive.org/). If I ever need to do this again, it will be much simpler now.

Excellent. You may want to mark this thread as Solved.

A good night’s sleep will do that every time.