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I want to clean install 10.11 on a MacBook Air 2008 and an iMac 2007.Both seem unable to boot from netinstall or an USB Stick. Which options do I have to get them quickly to 10.11?

Sebastian Semmler
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  • Which MacBook Air 2008 and iMac 2007 do you actually have? One should give complete model information when asking questions in situations such as this. – user3439894 Apr 21 '16 at 15:13

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Unless your models are Early for the years, they should be supported.

Apple requires you to have 10.6.8 or newer running since that's where the Mac App Store runs. If you have access to any Mac running 10.6.8 or newer, you could sign in to the App Store and download the 10.11 installer. It has a script to make a bootable USB installer - one shot command:

If you run into issues, this thread has several other methods to work through fixing your installer.

If you're not seeing the USB drive or network boot, perhaps resetting the NVRAM might help with that.

Community
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bmike
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  • making an usb installer is not the problem. These old devices just can't boot from USB and network. – Sebastian Semmler Apr 21 '16 at 15:27
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    Those models support network boot and USB boot. Apple hasn't released a product that won't USB boot for well over a decade. Even PowerPC Macs booted over USB when the "official" support wasn't declared. You might have other problems - need to reset NVRAM or worse - if neither net boot or USB boot work, @SebastianSemmler – bmike Apr 21 '16 at 16:21
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    NVRAM reset solved it. – Sebastian Semmler Apr 22 '16 at 11:53
  • I'll put that in the answer as an edit just in case someone misses it here. I'm glad you've gotten it sorted out. – bmike Apr 22 '16 at 13:37