Mac Mini 2011 (MC815) can't reinstall OS X

[kingof64squares]

Recreantly acquired a 2011 mac mini with a dead HDD. Replaced with a SSD and have tried every which way to get it to reinstall OS X and it keeps failing. When I boot into internet recovery (CMD+OPT+R) it shows that I can reinstall OS 10.7 Lion, but after accepting and starting the download for about 5 min its says "Can't download the additional components needed to install mac OS X"

I've tried making numerous bootable USB drives and all seem to end up with the same message. If you can offer any help with this one I'd really appreciate it.

 

[MacsBug]

On a 2011 Mac mini there are 2 ways to use the internet Recovery

Holding Command Option R should have brought you to the installer for macOS High Sierra (10.13.x)

Holding down Command Option Shift R should bring you to the mac OS X Lion (10.7)

Make sure that you are not accidently hitting the Shift key.

Another Option may be that your clock is set wrong. When you are at OS X Utilities screen, before you select Install OS X go to the Utilities menu on top and select Terminal. Once the terminal launches type in date and then hit Return. This should display the current date.

If it does not show the current date then type in date 0911010017 then hit Return

This will set the date to Sept 11, 2017 which should be prior to the date that most of the the older Install certificate expire and should allow you to install an older version of OS X.

 

[kingof64squares]

I tried both methods you mentioned and keep getting the same message. I then tried to change the date as you mentioned and it looked promising as it went for a while, but ended up giving me the same message.