Hello, I thought I was alone in this struggle. Same EXACT issue... I've tried everything. I have two 09 iMacs running El Capitan and I can not get them out of recovery. I've tried the server download (403 forbidden error), tried the time change but also doesn't work. I can't get them to recognize the bootable USB drives. But then in disk utility it's there. Why apple would make it so overly complicated to install an OS into a new drive is beyond me lol - Please help!