How do I redownload MacOS onto my laptop?

So this symbol basically means your computer can detect an operating system, but it cannot use it.

When trying to reinstall the operating system, did you erase the hard drive? If your mac currently has High Sierra on it, it will not let you downgrade to Sierra. That Mac will take all the way up to Monterey.

It may also be there is an inconsistency with the file system on the drive. Between Sierra and High Sierra they changed this from the traditional HFS+ to the newer APFS. This can sometimes cause the error you're seeing in recovery.

I had to reinstall with a Sierra bootable USB drive. Its really time consuming and might make you want to throw out your Mac but I'll post a couple forums that were really helpful. Excuse the incorrect terms as I'm not really a mac user.

Also, you have to have another working mac to do this.

Install Sierra into your applications folder from here:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-sier...

Then double click the dmg file. After it opens double click the pkg file. then follow the steps presented. Don't install the Sierra installer onto the working mac.

Make sure you have a USB drive in the device then format the drive to Mac OS Extended.

You'll need to open the terminal and type: sudo su enter

Then the following commands: This first one solves a but with the creation media permissions.

sudo plutil -replace CFBundleShortVersionString -string "12.6.03" /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Info.plist

Followed by:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume

Refer to the following forums to complete the process. I believe you put the USB in the broken device and boot it. when it makes noise hold the option button. you should have the option to select the USB. once it boots then you'll need to be sure the internal drive is wiped. when it is and in the right format you should be able to install Sierra.

This took me forever to figure out but non of the other options would work for me so use this as a last resort. The following forums can help with issues you might have.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/not...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

The best solution is a long one but the mod bot deleted my post. basically you need to make a bootable Sierra USB with a working Mac and install it but the long and short of it is that you'll need to use the terminal on another mac and install to the boot drive through commands. the issue is that there is a bug with the creation media tool for Sierra that makes the command unrecognized. It took me a week of research to get it to work. Probably mostly because there was only one forum that said anything bout the bug. and because I'm not really a mac guy. Good luck. If I can get the mods to let me post I'll send you the sites I found helpful.

Adk