In this video, I will be showing you how to make a bootable USB recovery disk using a USB flash drive, so you can repair and/or restore your Mac OS X operati. Select the disk location (it can be an internal HDD/SSD or a removable storage device) where you. Free downloadable macbook pro recovery disk mac programs like MacBook, MacBook Pro Trackpad Firmware Update, MacBook Pro Graphics Firmware Update, MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update.

So, you’ve decided to download an older version of Mac OS X. There are many reasons that could point you to this radical decision. To begin with, some of your apps may not be working properly (or simply crash) on newer operating systems. Also, you may have noticed your Mac’s performance went down right after the last update. Finally, if you want to run a parallel copy of Mac OS X on a virtual machine, you too will need a working installation file of an older Mac OS X. Further down we’ll explain where to get one and what problems you may face down the road.

A list of all Mac OS X versions

We’ll be repeatedly referring to these Apple OS versions below, so it’s good to know the basic macOS timeline.

Cheetah 10.0Puma 10.1Jaguar 10.2
Panther 10.3Tiger 10.4Leopard 10.5
Snow Leopard 10.6Lion 10.7Mountain Lion 10.8
Mavericks 10.9Yosemite 10.10El Capitan 10.11
Sierra 10.12High Sierra 10.13Mojave 10.14
Catalina 10.15

STEP 1. Prepare your Mac for installation

Given your Mac isn’t new and is filled with data, you will probably need enough free space on your Mac. This includes not just space for the OS itself but also space for other applications and your user data. One more argument is that the free space on your disk translates into virtual memory so your apps have “fuel” to operate on. The chart below tells you how much free space is needed.

Note, that it is recommended that you install OS on a clean drive. Next, you will need enough disk space available, for example, to create Recovery Partition. Here are some ideas to free up space on your drive:

  • Uninstall large unused apps
  • Empty Trash Bin and Downloads
  • Locate the biggest files on your computer:

Go to Finder > All My Files > Arrange by size
Then you can move your space hoggers onto an external drive or a cloud storage.
If you aren’t comfortable with cleaning the Mac manually, there are some nice automatic “room cleaners”. Our favorite is CleanMyMac as it’s most simple to use of all. It deletes system junk, old broken apps, and the rest of hidden junk on your drive.

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.4 - 10.8 (free version)

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.9 (free version)

Download CleanMyMac for OS 10.10 - 10.14 (free version)

STEP 2. Get a copy of Mac OS X download

Normally, it is assumed that updating OS is a one-way road. That’s why going back to a past Apple OS version is problematic. The main challenge is to download the OS installation file itself, because your Mac may already be running a newer version. If you succeed in downloading the OS installation, your next step is to create a bootable USB or DVD and then reinstall the OS on your computer.

How to download older Mac OS X versions via the App Store


If you once had purchased an old version of Mac OS X from the App Store, open it and go to the Purchased tab. There you’ll find all the installers you can download. However, it doesn’t always work that way. The purchased section lists only those operating systems that you had downloaded in the past. But here is the path to check it:

  1. Click the App Store icon.
  2. Click Purchases in the top menu.
  3. Scroll down to find the preferred OS X version.
  4. Click Download.

This method allows you to download Mavericks and Yosemite by logging with your Apple ID — only if you previously downloaded them from the Mac App Store.

Without App Store: Download Mac OS version as Apple Developer

If you are signed with an Apple Developer account, you can get access to products that are no longer listed on the App Store. If you desperately need a lower OS X version build, consider creating a new Developer account among other options. The membership cost is $99/year and provides a bunch of perks unavailable to ordinary users.

Nevertheless, keep in mind that if you visit developer.apple.com/downloads, you can only find 10.3-10.6 OS X operating systems there. Newer versions are not available because starting Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.7, the App Store has become the only source of updating Apple OS versions.

Purchase an older version of Mac operating system

You can purchase a boxed or email version of past Mac OS X directly from Apple. Both will cost you around $20. For the reason of being rather antiquated, Snow Leopard and earlier Apple versions can only be installed from DVD.

Buy a boxed edition of Snow Leopard 10.6
Get an email copy of Lion 10.7
Get an email copy of Mountain Lion 10.8

The email edition comes with a special download code you can use for the Mac App Store. Note, that to install the Lion or Mountain Lion, your Mac needs to be running Snow Leopard so you can install the newer OS on top of it.

How to get macOS El Capitan download

If you are wondering if you can run El Capitan on an older Mac, rejoice as it’s possible too. But before your Mac can run El Capitan it has to be updated to OS X 10.6.8. So, here are main steps you should take:

1. Install Snow Leopard from install DVD.
2. Update to 10.6.8 using Software Update.
3. Download El Capitan here.

“I can’t download an old version of Mac OS X”

If you have a newer Mac, there is no physical option to install Mac OS versions older than your current Mac model. For instance, if your MacBook was released in 2014, don’t expect it to run any OS released prior of that time, because older Apple OS versions simply do not include hardware drivers for your Mac.

But as it often happens, workarounds are possible. There is still a chance to download the installation file if you have an access to a Mac (or virtual machine) running that operating system. For example, to get an installer for Lion, you may ask a friend who has Lion-operated Mac or, once again, set up a virtual machine running Lion. Then you will need to prepare an external drive to download the installation file using OS X Utilities.

After you’ve completed the download, the installer should launch automatically, but you can click Cancel and copy the file you need. Below is the detailed instruction how to do it.

STEP 3. Install older OS X onto an external drive

The following method allows you to download Mac OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks.

  1. Start your Mac holding down Command + R.
  2. Prepare a clean external drive (at least 10 GB of storage).
  3. Within OS X Utilities, choose Reinstall OS X.
  4. Select external drive as a source.
  5. Enter your Apple ID.

Now the OS should start downloading automatically onto the external drive. After the download is complete, your Mac will prompt you to do a restart, but at this point, you should completely shut it down. Now that the installation file is “captured” onto your external drive, you can reinstall the OS, this time running the file on your Mac.

Macbook Pro Boot Disk Download

  1. Boot your Mac from your standard drive.
  2. Connect the external drive.
  3. Go to external drive > OS X Install Data.

Locate InstallESD.dmg disk image file — this is the file you need to reinstall Lion OS X. The same steps are valid for Mountain Lion and Mavericks.

Disk

How to downgrade a Mac running later macOS versions

If your Mac runs macOS Sierra 10.12 or macOS High Sierra 10.13, it is possible to revert it to the previous system if you are not satisfied with the experience. You can do it either with Time Machine or by creating a bootable USB or external drive.
Instruction to downgrade from macOS Sierra

Instruction to downgrade from macOS High Sierra

Instruction to downgrade from macOS Mojave

Instruction to downgrade from macOS Catalina

Before you do it, the best advice is to back your Mac up so your most important files stay intact. In addition to that, it makes sense to clean up your Mac from old system junk files and application leftovers. The easiest way to do it is to run CleanMyMac X on your machine (download it for free here).

Visit your local Apple Store to download older OS X version

If none of the options to get older OS X worked, pay a visit to nearest local Apple Store. They should have image installations going back to OS Leopard and earlier. You can also ask their assistance to create a bootable USB drive with the installation file. So here you are. We hope this article has helped you to download an old version of Mac OS X. Below are a few more links you may find interesting.

These might also interest you:

When the MacBook Pro is dead or crashed, or it can not boot properly, the first thing is to recover data from the dead Mac hard drive. How to recover data from dead MacBook Pro or MacBook Air? EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac with Bootable Media and several manual methods will help you to recover data from MacBook Pro hard drive and repair failed/unbootable Mac hard drive in the simplest way.

You can follow this page to either repair a failed hard drive on Mac or recover data from a dead Mac hard drive.

Workable SolutionsStep-by-step Troubleshooting
Fix 1. MacBook Data Recovery

Method 1. Restore Mac data from dead MacBook...Full steps

Method 2. Recover dead Mac hard drive data to another computer...Full steps

Fix 2. Repair Failed Mac Hard Drive

Method 1. Run First Aid to Repair Failed Mac Hard Drive using Disk Utility...Full steps

Method 2. Fix Won't Turn on MacBook Pro or Mac Computers...Full steps

How Do I Recover Data from My Dead MacBook Pro?

'My MacBook Pro died and stopped working last week. It won't turn on from then on and gets stuck in the process of trying to boot up. Is there any way I can recover data from the dead MacBook Pro?'

As one of the most popular desktop devices, MacbookPro elevates the notebook to a whole new level of performance and portability. Although Macbook Pro works normally in most cases, however, something wrong may occasionally happen, such as it may suddenly crash or die due to various reasons.

Here is a list of major reasons that may cause you Mac computer died or fail to boot:

  • Computer wear and tear, or aging
  • System crash
  • Hard drive failure
  • Virus attack
  • Too many bad sectors

When the problem occurs, you can neither boot the MacBook Pro nor can you access the data on the hard drive. At this time, the first thing you can do is to get data off the dead MacBook Pro is using a professional Mac data recovery software. Then you can use the built-in Disk Utility or other methods to repair the corrupted hard drive on MacBook Pro with ease.

The provided solutions on this page also work to recover data from dead Mac hard drive on MacBook, MacBook Air, etc., computers. Read on and see the detailed how-to guide.

MacBook Data Recovery: Recover Data from Dead MacBook Pro

If you have a Time Machine backup on MacBook Pro, you can follow methods in the next part to repair failed hard drive, make MacBook pro bootable again, and restore Mac data from Time Machine backup.

If you don't have a backup, don't worry. You can try the following two methods to restore data from dead MacBook Pro to an external hard drive to another computer.

Method 1. Recover Data from Dead MacBook Pro to an External Hard Drive

Professional Mac hard drive data recovery program - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac with bootable media can effectively recover lost photos, audio, music, documents, emails from failed/crashed/dead MacBook Pro.

EaseUS Mac data recovery software also supports recovering deleted files from the emptied Trash, external hard drives, USB flash drives, memory cards, SD cards, etc. on Mac OS X 10.9 to macOS Catalina 10.15.

Now, you can follow the tutorial below to create a bootable recovery drive and recover data from the dead MacBook Pro hard drive with a few steps:

How to Create a USB Bootable Media

Step 1. Install and run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac on another Mac computer, select 'File' > 'Create Bootable USB'. Then, choose a USB drive to create the bootable disc.

Warning
The creator will prompt to erase the drive to reallocate the space; then it can write the bootable files to this drive. Please back up all USB files before processing 'Eraser'.

Step 2. The program starts to create a 2GB space and save the boot files. The rest space on the USB can be still used for storage.

Step 3. Once it completes, please follow the guide to boot the corrupted Mac from the bootable disc and start the recovery. We suggest you restore the data to an external hard drive.

How to Recover Data from Mac Hard Disk

Step 1. Select the disk location (it can be an internal HDD/SSD or a removable storage device) where you lost data and files. Click the 'Scan' button.

Step 2. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will immediately scan your selected disk volume and display the scanning results on the left pane.

Step 3. In the scan results, select the file(s) and click the 'Recover Now' button to have them back.

Note: Remember to save the recovered Mac data to another secure external hard drive and then follow methods in the next part to repair the problematic Mac hard drive.

Method 2. Recover Mac Hard Drive Data to Another PC/Mac

Note: As the following tips will break your computer warranty and you are on a warranty, don't try the provided tips. Also, if you are not experienced in removing or inserting hard drive on Mac computers, revert back to Method 1 for help.

If you have two computers at home, you can also try the following steps to restore Mac hard drive data to another computer:

First. Remove Mac hard drive and connect it to another computer

Required tools: a screwdriver, an external hard drive enclosure, and a USB connection cable.

Step 1. Open your Mac computer case, remove the hard drive with your screwdriver.

Pro

Step 2. Put your Mac hard drive into the external hard drive enclosure, and connect it to your computer.

Next. Access and check the data

On Windows Computer: Open the Windows File Explorer, double-click to check the hard drive data.

On Mac: Double-click the disk icon on the desktop and check if you can access the hard drive and its data.

If you can access the data, congratulations. You've successfully got your data out of the dead MacBook Pro. If not data shows up, refers to the next step.

Last. Restore Mac Hard Drive to Another Computer

On Windows computer, you can download the Windows version of EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to scan and recover data from Mac hard drive to PC with ease.

On Mac computer, you can follow the three steps below to directly scan and bring the Mac hard drive data back:

Step 1. Select the disk location (it can be an internal HDD/SSD or a removable storage device) where you lost data and files. Click the 'Scan' button.

Step 2. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will immediately scan your selected disk volume and display the scanning results on the left pane.

Step 3. In the scan results, select the file(s) and click the 'Recover Now' button to have them back.

After this, you've successfully restore data from your dead MacBook Pro.

How to Repair a Failed Hard Drive or Dead MacBook Pro

When you meet these issues on MacBook Pro, such as MacBook Pro is dead, Mac won't start up, multiple apps quit unexpectedly, a file is corrupted, and an external device doesn't work properly, you are highly possible having a problematic Mac hard drive.

Usually, when your Mac computer dead or failed to boot up, it's highly possible that the problem exists on your Mac hard drive or the macOS. As the causes are different, the fixes may also differ.

Method 1. Run First Aid to Repair Failed Mac Hard Drive using Disk Utility

Disk Utility is a built-in Mac disk management tool that can also fix some disk problems, like Mac hard drive won't boot.

After restoring the Mac hard drive data to a safe place, you can use the Disk Utility to check for errors and repair problematic hard drive and volumes with the following steps:

Step 1. Restart your Mac computer, press and hold Command + R keys simultaneously.

Step 2. Click 'Disk Utility' and then 'Continue'.

Step 3. Go to 'View' > 'Show All Devices'.

Choose the Mac hard drive to be repaired.

Step 4. Click 'First Aid' and then 'Run'. Click 'Done' when the process completes.

Macbook

Macbook Pro Recovery Disk Download Free

Macbook pro recovery disk download

If Disk Utility reports that the disk appears to be OK or has been repaired, you've finished.

Download Macbook Pro Os Disk

If Disk Utility tells you the disk is about to fail, you can't repair it, got back to Method 1 with the provided Mac data recovery tool to export all the data from dead Mac immediately. Then you can either choose to replace the old Mac hard drive with a new one or directly switch to everything - your data to a new Mac computer.

Method 2. Fix Won't Turn on MacBook Pro or Mac Computers

When the Mac computer is installed with a piratic macOS or the macOS crashes, the MacBook Pro or other Mac computers may also fail to boot. And some even don't react at all, showing like a dead computer.

So how to fix this issue? Here are 5 ways that you can try to fix Mac computer won't turn on issue:

  • Fix 1. Fix PRAM/NVRAM
  • Fix 2. Reset SMC
  • Fix 3. Boot in Safe Mode
  • Fix 4. Run Disk Utility
  • Fix 5. Reinstall macOS

For a step-by-step guide, please refer to Mac won't boot for help.

Conclusion & MacBook Data Recovery FAQs

On this page, we covered the reasons that cause MacBook Pro and hard drive dead. To recover the lost Mac hard drive data immediately, turn to EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac.

It will quickly scan and restore your lost Mac hard drive data with a created data recovery bootable disk. You can also try to switch the old Mac hard drive to a new computer, and check if you can access the data.

As for repairing the problematic Mac hard drive, you can run Disk Utility with its First Aid feature to see if the disk can be fixed. If nothing works, you can consider changing a Mac computer or try the recommend 5 methods to fix the Mac computer that won't turn on.

If you still have some questions about MacBook data recovery, check the quick answers below to help yourself out:

Macbook Pro A1286 Recovery Disk Download

1. How do I recover data from my Mac?

When you lost data on Mac computer, here are three ways that you can try to recover data from Mac:

Method 1. Restore Deleted Files from Mac Trash Bin

Method 2. Recover Data from Time Machine Backup

Method 3. Recover Data using Mac Data Recovery Software, such as EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard.

2. Does Apple offer data recovery?

Free Apple Operating System Download

According to Apple's hard drive data recovery and warranty implications: 'Hard drives that have become non-functional through normal use, and have had data recovery performed on them by third-party companies specializing in data recovery services can be returned to Apple for warranty service...'.

3. How do I recover data from my MacBook after factory reset?

The possibility to recover data after factory resetting MacBook is not very high. But, as long as you didn't save any new files on the Mac hard drive after the factory reset, you can still try to run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac and check if it can find something for you.

If you need a complete guide to factory reset a Mac computer, refer to Factory Reset MacBook without Losing Data for help.

4. How do I recover data from my Macbook SSD?

Macbook Recovery Disc Download

As you know that SSD has a Trim mode, and if you turned on the Trim mode, everything you deleted cannot be restored.

Therefore, if you need to restore data from SSD, you need first check the SSD Trim status; Then if the Trim is disabled, run EaseUS Mac data recovery software to scan and restore data from your Mac SSD.