[REQUEST] Can't Install El Capitan or Catalina

Appletax

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U.P. of Michigan
Got a MacBook Pro Early 2011 that I put an SSD into and am trying to get on OS on. Tried installing Catalina using DOS Dude's program, but it refuses to work.

Want to install El Capitan, the last OS it fully supports, but I cannot make a bootable USB drive with it because I can only download it from non-Mac App Store places.

The file name itself is different from what all the Terminal commands use and changing it doesn't work. DiskMaker X can't use this version either. Also tried Rufus on Windows.

Can't do this: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

Edit:

I got Catalina to run by choosing all options in DOS Dude's program, which should not be required.

Found that I can use TransMac.

Sure would be nice to be able to use Terminal along with a downloaded El Capitan or any other old version that does not come from the Mac App Store.
 
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Hope this is your computer and not a clients. I would not recommend using the DOS Dude method on a clients system.
 
Have you tried recovery mode and install whatever version it originally had? Then could upgrade to the last version supported?
Also, if the original drive is good, you could clone the IMG [recovery] volume to a flash drive in disk utility, boot from it and install the original MacOS.
 
Some older Macs just don't let you jump versions, put the original on and upgrade from there. Also when you install osx on a older Mac you have to change the date with terminal in recovery first, to the old date that it was active, must be offline too or the day will switch back to current. You'll get an error everytime with a newer date than the os supports
 
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