Cannot reinstall Mountain Lion on MacBook in recovery mode: Only Mac OS X Base system available in recovery mode.
I am trying to reinstall Mountain Lion on a 2014 MacBook Air that has crashed. I have booted (successfully) countless times in recovery mode. Have timemachine backups from an external HD, can access the internet etc. The crux is that no disk is available when trying to reinstall. Disk Utility only shows disk0 and the ex dented Mac OS X Base System. Erase is greyed out. Verification is fine. Once a few days ago the HD appeared briefly in Disk Utility (!) and I tried to erase but an error message appeared and I have not seen it since.
I have done all the Google searches for the problem and have not found a solution. The Base System shows 1.19 GB with a little spare space. Because I have a recent back up I just need to erase and reinstall but the erase is the problem. Should I try and create a partition on the Base System? Or a new disk image? I have an even older Mac using 10.6 if that is of help (ie I could create an image on the La Cie HD to boot if that made sense though the La Cie HD has my TimeMachine backups). I am not able to get to an Apple Store for the next few weeks. I think I will need to get a new MacBook but hoping one of the geniuses on this forum might have a solution to saving the old woke! Many thanks in advance.