How vintage is vintage? Internet Recovery was added in 2011 [0] — although it doesn’t work in all cases. If you have older hardware (as old as 2007), you can d

How vintage is vintage? Internet Recovery was added in 2011 [0] — although it doesn’t work in all cases. If you have older hardware (as old as 2007), you can download Yosemite, El Capitan or Sierra from Apple’s website [1] or the App Store. Note that using those images requires access to a working Mac, or at least a Mac with working (Internet) Recovery, although doing it in Recovery is complicated and requires some tricks [2], because Apple can’t just make a simple DMG you could mount (or image a drive with) and install directly. [0]: https://9to5mac.com/2011/07/20/what-is-os-x-lion-internet-recovery-and-how-does-it-work/ https://9to5mac.com/2011/07/20/what-is-os-x-lion-internet-re... [1]: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683 [2]: https://chriswarrick.com/blog/2020/06/03/reinstalling-macos-what-to-try-when-all-else-fails/#making-install-media-with-el-capitan-with-access-only-to-recovery https://chriswarrick.com/blog/2020/06/03/reinstalling-macos-...