I’ve been trying to install elementary on my mid 2010 17" mbp. I’ve created a few different flash drives using both Etcher and DD. I’ve even verified the ISO hash. No matter what media I use I wind up here after selecting the bootable usb. Google has not been helpful in figuring this out. Anyone else seen this?
I was under the assumption that OP didn’t even boot into the installer yet. I don’t think the HDD is the issue here. I don’t think the HDD or the filesystem it contains would matter anyway. This has just been my experience installing Linux on an x86 Mac. You have to try a few things to get it to work. I recall Peppermint OS (Back when it was Ubuntu based) failing to install everytime but Zorin OS Lite working just fine.