Command-R is the option to install the OS that originally came with the machine. You need to use command-OPTION -r to install the latest OS that the machine will take. Here’s step by step on using internet recovery to re-install your OS: 1.⁠ Power off, unplug all peripherals except charger. 2. ⁠Boot holding command-option-r. Again, that's Command-OPTION-r, not just command-r. 3. ⁠It should ask you to connect to wi-fi. Connect to a good wi-fi signal, this isn't something you can do with shaky wi-fi. It's better to plug directly into the modem if you have an ethernet adapter.⁠ 4. When the recovery screen comes up, select Disk Utility, go to the top taskbar, select View, select 'view all devices'. 5.Select the root of your drive and erase it. Screenshot of what disk utility looks like after you have done step 4: https://imgur.com/a/s7Ubgrv Arrow points to the root. Name it Macintosh HD. Format it as AFPS, GUID Partition Map. 6. Quit Disk Utility, select install OS. Follow the steps. If this doesn't work, please tell us where you are getting hung up, and that will give us more of an idea of what's going wonky. EDIT: This will only work if you have a machine that is 2012 or newer. For older machines, you will need to Google how to make an external USB installer for your older OS. EDIT 2: Added a screen shot in step 5 showing what the root of the drive looks like. EDIT 3: This is for Intel machines only!

One possible procedure would be as follows:

1. Create a bootable USB El Capitan or Sierra installer. This can be done from either Windows or macOS (OS X). However, macOS (OS X) does not require third party tools and Windows does. You can try using Create a bootable installer for macOS, but recently I have had better success using this answer. The answer can also be adapted for use with Sierra.
2. Boot from the installer.
3. Partition the internal drive into two Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volumes of approximately equal size. I prefer to use the diskutil command, but the Disk Utility application should be able to preform this task.
4. Install the operating system on the second Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume.
5. Install all updates.
6. Goto How to download macOS and follow the instructions for getting the Install macOS High Sierra application.
7. Use the Install macOS High Sierra application to install High Sierra on the first Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume.
8. While booted to High Sierra, remove the second Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume and reclaim the free space back to the first volume. Again, I prefer using the diskutil command over the Disk Utility application.

This has been available for months: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouNQS36dIBw https://mrmacintosh.com/how-to-fix-the-recovery-server-could-not-be-contacted-error-high-sierra-recovery-is-still-online-but-broken/ Google before diving in

Fortunately I was able to simply reinstall macOS High Sierra by booting into Recovery Mode (Command ⌘ + R) and choosing Reinstall macOS High Sierra.

I did not erase my drive first since system volume was intact (no errors after running Disk Utility). I simply reinstalled the OS and I was able to log back in with all my data, settings, and apps still there just like before.

Also, this installed the 10.3.4 version of macOS High Sierra, so I don't have to go through the update process again.