MP 1,1-5,1 2012 Mac Pro hard disks disabled after system spontaneously locked with a PIN code

HawkMcDuck · Jan 27, 2023

(This was initially posted on reddit.com

Equipment:
Mac Pro (mid-2012) running macOS 10.14.6 Mojave all patches current
Processor 2x3.46 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon
Memory 48 GB
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB
Boot disk 1TB NVME SSD
Five additional internal hard disks with a total of about 16 TB of available space

This is an extremely weird and unusual problem. Apologies for the long explanation.

I purchased this machine on Craigslist in May 2022, configured the system, and it had been running pretty much continuously without any apparent issues until about two weeks ago. At that time, the computer started emitting an alert with a beeping sound every five or ten minutes. When I checked the Mac Pro's screen, the entire window was gray with a message saying "Enter your system lock PIN code to unlock this Mac", and a six digit box below. I had no idea what had caused this, nor what the six digit code might be. (See a similar image to what I saw in the link below. BTW, this was NOT the Firmware Passcode screen with the Lock symbol.)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7369612

The first thing that came to mind was a ransomware attack, but when I checked my email, there was none (I have received no ransomware notifications since). The next thing I thought of was that someone unknown to me had used Apple ID to remotely lock the machine, using "Find My". (The latter hypothesis still seems to be the best guess at what caused this issue.)
I tried a reboot (let's call this one Mac Pro A). Same thing. I tried holding down the Option key to bring up another internal partition disk, a bootable Carbon Copy Cloner backup, but all five of the additional internal disks were inaccessible, as well as each and every partition on each of these disks. I have a spare 2012 Mac Pro (let's call this Mac Pro B) with an additional internal bootable disk running Mojave. When I inserted the internal bootable disk from Mac Pro B into Mac Pro A and rebooted, the same PIN code message appeared on the entire window. When I inserted the hard disks from Mac Pro A into Mac Pro B and tried to boot from Mac Pro B, the hard disks originally in Mac Pro A were showing as inaccessible. I tried moving the CPU tray from Mac Pro A to Mac Pro B, and vice versa, but still no luck. It was pretty clear to me that the lock was on the chassis and not to the CPU tray. That is the serial number of the machine is tied to the chassis, and not to the CPU tray, and the PIN code is linked to the firmware in the chassis via the serial number of the machine.
One additional observation is that Mac Pro A with the correct serial number of the machine showed up in the Apple ID on another Mac computer I have, an iMac running macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra. (I mention the OS because iCloud and Find My Device appear to be slightly different on different macOS's, such as Catalina, Mojave, and High Sierra.) However in the web version of iCloud, Mac Pro A did NOT appear under "All Devices", neither green (online) nor gray (offline), although my other Mac devices, including computers, iPhone, and iPad did appear as one would expect.

I spent the next day on the phone with Apple Support, calling them three or four separate times. The first line support engineers were encouraging, but unfortunately they were not particularly helpful in resolving the issue. Of course both the 2012 Mac Pro and macOS 10.14 Mojave are out of support, so that didn't help matters. Also, since I did not have the purchase invoice of Mac Pro A, and the person I had purchased it from had also purchased it used. Neither did he have the purchase invoice (see the next paragraph).
At this point, I was not a happy camper. I still had the phone number of the person that I had purchased Mac Pro A from back in May, 2022, and contacted him. He is a Mac developer and seemed fairly knowledgeable re: computers. He assured me that he had removed Mac Pro A from his Apple ID. He immediately re-checked to confirm this.
One thing the former owner did provide was a six digit code, say it's 123456, which he said was his password and he said to try. When I entered this code, bang, the system rebooted and after a few minutes up popped my original Mac Pro A screen. I was delighted. However, after ten seconds or so, the system spontaneously rebooted, and presented the gray PIN code screen.
I tried everything I could think of, booting into single user mode, booting into recovery mode, turning off and on the Firmware Passcode. Nothing seemed to work.

I struggled with this off and on for about two weeks, unsuccessfully. Yesterday, a partial but significant breakthrough. I tried a fresh install of macOS 10.14.6 removing all the internal hard disks, including the bootable NVME, from Mac Pro A, inserting a bootable macOS 10.14 Mojave flash disk (originally from dosdude1) and a newly HFS+ formatted 500GB SSD. To my surprise, the macOS 10.14 installation proceeded except that when it came time to reboot, the system came up with another, different message: "Your computer is disabled. Try again in 1 minute." (See the image in the link below.)

After a Google search, I stumbled upon this gem:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/364269/your-computer-is-disabled-try-again-in-60-minutes

What is significant here for my purpose were the following commands:
nvram -c
nvram -xp
nvram -c
nvram -c
nvram -c
nvram -c
nvram -xp

I rebooted using the macOS 10.14 installer flash drive, typed the commands above into the Terminal app. Voila! the fresh macOS 10.14 installed on Mac Pro A continued to completion. I quickly checked that I could successfully reboot the freshly installed macOS 10.14 without the annoying PIN message(s) on Mac Pro A, and yes, I could.

I then shut down Mac Pro A, installed its original bootable NVME SSD, and it booted up without any issues, and it appeared nothing had been damaged. Yippee!

Unfortunately, and this is my remaining problem, when I inserted the original remaining hard disks--except for the NVME boot disk--none of them showed up on the desktop. Each of these hard disks shows up in Disk Utility, but all are inaccessible. Each of the disk partitions on each of the hard disks are greyed out, labelled "disk3s2", "disk2s3", "disk5s2", etc. They are unmountable from Disk Utility, For example, here is the Disk Utility output for one of them (each of the other disabled disks is similar):

disk3s2 480.13 GB
Not mounted
Used --
Free --
Mount Point: Not Mounted
Type: SATA Internal Physical Volume
Capacity: 480.13 GB
Owners: Disabled
Available: Zero KB
Connection: SATA
Used: --
Device: disk3s2

This morning I called Apple Support to see if they had any ideas. Again, they were sympathetic, but were unable to move me any further. They did set me up with a visit to the Genius Bar for Monday morning (it's Friday morning as I'm writing this) which I'm happy about.
If you've gotten to the bottom of this post, thanks, and again, sorry for the verbiage. I have tried to be as clear, concise and accurate as I could with the information I have.

I'm hoping there's someone out there who can help me recover my data, which has years and years of work.

Macschrauber · Jan 28, 2023

Try a deep nvram reset.

Hold cmd-alt-p-r until the Mac chimes 4 times when cold starting. Dont release the keys until the 4th chime.

spidertnt · Jan 28, 2023

Do what above suggested

Then important don't just erase HD - delete the partition and recreate a new one / then erase HD ) The objective here is to delete the recovery partition ....thats what can give the message about waiting 60 sec etc.

Now install new OS / sign into ICloud / enable find my Mac . This will confirm the Mac can register to you and not another ICloud account

If it does you should have no issues .

I don't think it has remote management (MDM/ DEP) on it but you can check after install like this

You can check a device’s ADE/DEP enrolment status using a Terminal command, but you’ll need admin access (so the owner will need to enter the admin password for the command to run). Open Terminal and type:

sudo profiles show -type enrollment

If you see “null” or an error like “Client is not DEP enabled.” then the device is likely not enrolled. This means it’s probably not stolen from a previous employer or university.

Macschrauber · Jan 28, 2023

spidertnt said:
sudo profiles show -type enrollment

This is a very useful thing I will implement in my dumper / nvram checker in a future version.

The owner should be informed if the machine is enrolled in remote management.

tsialex · Jan 28, 2023

Macschrauber said:
This is a very useful thing I will implement in my dumper / nvram checker in a future version.

The owner should be informed if the machine is enrolled in remote management.

Only 2013 and later Macs can be DEP enrolled, you can't remote manage a MacPro5,1 via DEP.

tsialex · Jan 28, 2023

HawkMcDuck said:
Unfortunately, and this is my remaining problem, when I inserted the original remaining hard disks--except for the NVME boot disk--none of them showed up on the desktop. Each of these hard disks shows up in Disk Utility, but all are inaccessible. Each of the disk partitions on each of the hard disks are greyed out, labelled "disk3s2", "disk2s3", "disk5s2", etc. They are unmountable from Disk Utility, For example, here is the Disk Utility output for one of them (each of the other disabled disks is similar):

disk3s2 480.13 GB
Not mounted
Used --
Free --
Mount Point: Not Mounted
Type: SATA Internal Physical Volume
Capacity: 480.13 GB
Owners: Disabled
Available: Zero KB
Connection: SATA
Used: --
Device: disk3s2

Did you encrypted your disks with FileVault?

Open Terminal and run diskutil list, take a screenshot and upload here.

HawkMcDuck · Jan 28, 2023

spidertnt said:
Do what above suggested

Then important don't just erase HD - delete the partition and recreate a new one / then erase HD ) The objective here is to delete the recovery partition ....thats what can give the message about waiting 60 sec etc.

Now install new OS / sign into ICloud / enable find my Mac . This will confirm the Mac can register to you and not another ICloud account

If it does you should have no issues .

I don't think it has remote management (MDM/ DEP) on it but you can check after install like this

You can check a device’s ADE/DEP enrolment status using a Terminal command, but you’ll need admin access (so the owner will need to enter the admin password for the command to run). Open Terminal and type:

sudo profiles show -type enrollment

If you see “null” or an error like “Client is not DEP enabled.” then the device is likely not enrolled. This means it’s probably not stolen from a previous employer or university.

@spidertnt Thanks for your reply. If your comment is directed at my particular issue, FYI I no longer have an issue with the 2012 Mac Pro being locked up, etc., or with iCloud or with waiting. As I described in the original post (sorry it's so lengthy), that issue has been resolved. My issue now is that the remaining hard disks are inaccessible, that is unmountable, unwritable, and with the permissions (i.e., owners) disabled. Also, as I explained in the post, I did a fresh installation of macOS 10.14.6 using a flash drive but it didn't resolve the issue, tho' it did lead me (somewhat serendipitously) to the partial solution.

However, thanks indeed for the comment about the Terminal command to check enrolment status. That is VERY useful to know, and might have been helpful in my issue. It is interesting that none of the four or five Apple Support engineers mentioned this command when I specifically asked one of them if it were possible to find out if and/or who might have control over the 2012 Mac Pro via iCloud.

Note: DEP is Apple's Device Enrollment Program, which is a business-specific program.

Here's what that command gives me on the 2012 Mac Pro right now:

$ sudo profiles show -type enrollment
Device Enrollment configuration:
{
}
$

This 2012 Mac Pro is currently "enrolled" in iCloud under my Apple ID, and is visible (i.e., green dot=online) in the web iCloud app. Is it clear to you on what this command is actually stating? I'm speculating here, but I think it's saying that this machine does not appear to have been stolen from a business that enrolled it in DEP.

One thing that would be useful to know is if a device is owned by someone in iCloud (or possibly by which Apple ID if that isn't a security concern).

HawkMcDuck · Jan 28, 2023

tsialex said:
Did you encrypted your disks with FileVault?

Open Terminal and run diskutil list, take a screenshot and upload here.

No, I have never used FileVault.

tsialex · Jan 28, 2023

HawkMcDuck said:
I specifically asked one of them if it were possible to find out if and/or who might have control over the 2012 Mac Pro via iCloud.

DEP is a form of enrollment for business/corporate Macs for remote management that have nothing to do with iCloud and is not supported for Macs with model year earlier than 2013.

What you want to look is iCloudLock/FindMyMac.

HawkMcDuck · Jan 28, 2023

tsialex said:
DEP is a form of enrollment for business/corporate Macs for remote management that have nothing to do with iCloud and is not supported for Macs with model year earlier than 2013.

What you want to look is iCloudLock/FindMyMac.

You say "iCloudLock". What is that, a typo perhaps? FYI, all during the weeks I spent troubleshooting this issue I used both the web app for "iCloud" Find My as well as the Find My Mac app in System Preferences ==> iCloud. I did "Remove" the 2012 Mac Pro from iCloud (numerous times actually), but it didn't help.

But what is iCloudLock?

HawkMcDuck · Jan 28, 2023

HawkMcDuck said:
No, I have never used FileVault.

$ sudo diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (external):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk6         1000.0 GB  disk0s2
/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS                         3.0 TB     disk1s2
/dev/disk2 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS                         480.1 GB   disk2s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS                         120.0 GB   disk2s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS                         120.0 GB   disk2s4
   5:                  Apple_HFS                         120.0 GB   disk2s5
   6:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk2s6
   7:                  Apple_HFS                         256.0 GB   disk2s7
   8:                 Apple_APFS Container disk5         602.4 GB   disk2s8
   9:                  Apple_HFS                         100.0 GB   disk2s9
  10:                  Apple_HFS                         200.2 GB   disk2s10
/dev/disk3 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk3
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk3s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS                         3.0 TB     disk3s2
/dev/disk4 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk4
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk4s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS                         3.0 TB     disk4s2
/dev/disk5 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +602.4 GB   disk5
                                 Physical Store disk2s8
   1:                APFS Volume Untitled                950.3 KB   disk5s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 20.5 KB    disk5s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                20.5 KB    disk5s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      20.5 KB    disk5s4
/dev/disk6 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +1000.0 GB  disk6
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume MacQuatro macOS 10.1... 824.9 GB   disk6s1
   2:                APFS Volume PreBoot                 21.2 MB    disk6s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                510.2 MB   disk6s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      20.5 KB    disk6s4
$

FYI, I have unplugged the LaCie 2x3GB drive from the system.

You can see that all of my partitions are still there, tho' whether the original data exists is another question. However, I am hopeful that the folks at the Genius Bar can bring back all my cherished TBs of data and make me a happy cowboy.

tsialex · Jan 28, 2023

HawkMcDuck said:
But what is iCloudLock?

FindMyMac Lock feature or with T-2 Macs and Apple Silicon Macs, Activation Lock - which won't work for a MacPro earlier than 2019 Mac Pro.

HawkMcDuck said:
$ sudo diskutil list /dev/disk0 (external): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme 1.0 TB disk0 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1 2: Apple_APFS Container disk6 1000.0 GB disk0s2 /dev/disk1 (internal, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *3.0 TB disk1 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1 2: Apple_HFS 3.0 TB disk1s2 /dev/disk2 (internal, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk2 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1 2: Apple_HFS 480.1 GB disk2s2 3: Apple_HFS 120.0 GB disk2s3 4: Apple_HFS 120.0 GB disk2s4 5: Apple_HFS 120.0 GB disk2s5 6: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk2s6 7: Apple_HFS 256.0 GB disk2s7 8: Apple_APFS Container disk5 602.4 GB disk2s8 9: Apple_HFS 100.0 GB disk2s9 10: Apple_HFS 200.2 GB disk2s10 /dev/disk3 (internal, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *3.0 TB disk3 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1 2: Apple_HFS 3.0 TB disk3s2 /dev/disk4 (internal, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *3.0 TB disk4 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk4s1 2: Apple_HFS 3.0 TB disk4s2 /dev/disk5 (synthesized): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: APFS Container Scheme - +602.4 GB disk5 Physical Store disk2s8 1: APFS Volume Untitled 950.3 KB disk5s1 2: APFS Volume Preboot 20.5 KB disk5s2 3: APFS Volume Recovery 20.5 KB disk5s3 4: APFS Volume VM 20.5 KB disk5s4 /dev/disk6 (synthesized): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: APFS Container Scheme - +1000.0 GB disk6 Physical Store disk0s2 1: APFS Volume MacQuatro macOS 10.1... 824.9 GB disk6s1 2: APFS Volume PreBoot 21.2 MB disk6s2 3: APFS Volume Recovery 510.2 MB disk6s3 4: APFS Volume VM 20.5 KB disk6s4 $

FYI, I have unplugged the LaCie 2x3GB drive from the system.

The 3TB disks, disk1, disk3 and disk4, are normal JHFS+ non FileVault disks and should be easily accessible.

disk2 partition table seems a mess, why so much 120GB partitions? These are containers and could have something done to it.

HawkMcDuck · Jan 28, 2023

tsialex said:
FindMyMac Lock feature or with T-2 Macs and Apple Silicon Macs, Activation Lock - which won't work for a MacPro earlier than 2019 Mac Pro.

The 3TB disks, disk1, disk3 and disk4, are normal JHFS+ non FileVault disks and should be easily accessible.

disk2 partition table seems a mess, why so much 120GB partitions? These are containers and could have something done to it.

@tsialex Thanks for your reply

As I described in the original post, none of these hard disks and none of their partitions are accessible (each is unmountable, unwritable, and ownership disabled) and have been that way since the 2012 Mac Pro locked up two weeks ago. That is the issue. If you or anyone else knows how to rectify that, I would be eternally grateful.

In case you missed what I said above, I have never used FileVault, and all of these hard disks and their partitions have been working perfectly from May 2022 until the 2012 Mac Pro locked up two weeks ago.

Re: Disk2. These are not a mess at all. These are 120 GB, etc., partitions used as Carbon Copy Cloner backups for a number of older iMacs and Mac minis that had the original bootable (conventional) drives replaced by cheap (but fast) 120 GB, etc., SSDs.

tsialex · Jan 28, 2023

Mount manually with diskutil mountdisk diskXX and from the error messages start to investigate the real issue.

HawkMcDuck · Jan 28, 2023

tsialex said:
Mount manually with diskutil mountdisk diskXX and from the error messages start to investigate the real issue.

Thanks, but that was one of the first things I tried a couple of days ago, without success. Here's the output:

$ ls -la /u1
total 0
drwxr-xr-x   2 root  wheel    64 21 Jan 23:43 .
drwxr-xr-x  32 root  wheel  1024 21 Jan 23:43 ..
$ sudo diskutil mount -mountPoint /u1 /dev/disk3s2
Volume on disk3s2 failed to mount
If the volume is damaged, try the "readOnly" option
$ sudo diskutil mount readOnly -mountPoint /u1 /dev/disk3s2
Volume on disk3s2 failed to mount
If the volume is damaged, try the "readOnly" option
$ sudo diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk3
One or more volume(s) failed to mount
$ sudo diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk3s2
One or more volume(s) failed to mount
$

tsialex · Jan 28, 2023

HawkMcDuck said:
Thanks, but that was one of the first things I tried a couple of days ago, without success. Here's the output:

$ ls -la /u1 total 0 drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 64 21 Jan 23:43 . drwxr-xr-x 32 root wheel 1024 21 Jan 23:43 .. $ sudo diskutil mount -mountPoint /u1 /dev/disk3s2 Volume on disk3s2 failed to mount If the volume is damaged, try the "readOnly" option $ sudo diskutil mount readOnly -mountPoint /u1 /dev/disk3s2 Volume on disk3s2 failed to mount If the volume is damaged, try the "readOnly" option $

Open Console and search the logs for the corresponding error message.

HawkMcDuck · Jan 28, 2023

FYI, the diskutil command was executed after 8pm local time.

$ date
Sat 28 Jan 2023 21:03:41 PST
$ pwd
/var/log
$ ls -ltr *.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root     wheel         0 14 Jun  2020 displaypolicyd.stdout.log
-rw-------  1 root     wheel         0 20 Jan  2021 racoon.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root     wheel       512 20 Jan  2021 ppp.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root     wheel        19 21 Jan  2021 shutdown_monitor.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root     wheel       221 22 Nov 13:09 kernel-shutdown.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root     wheel    982364 28 Jan 12:05 fsck_hfs.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root     wheel     57176 28 Jan 12:05 ovpnagent.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root     wheel   4287368 28 Jan 12:06 fsck_apfs.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root     wheel      7151 28 Jan 12:06 fsck_apfs_error.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root     wheel   9182724 28 Jan 12:07 corecaptured.log
-rw-r--r--@ 1 stewart  staff  98129634 28 Jan 15:09 install.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root     admin      5449 28 Jan 20:56 wifi.log
-rw-r-----@ 1 root     admin   3738747 28 Jan 21:03 system.log
$ sudo egrep "diskutil|mount|disk3" system.log
$

There doesn't appear to be any errors related to diskutil, mount, nor disk3 in /var/log/system.log

HawkMcDuck · Jan 29, 2023

As I mentioned earlier, I have an appointment tomorrow with the Genius Bar in the city where I live. I'm hopeful (what else can I say?) that the folks there can help me recover my TBs of data.

But if not, what then?

I'm surmising here that the issue is software related, and that there's a couple of bits that need to be flipped to get my data back, or some other such magic incantation. To do that I need something stronger than Apple provides with Disk Utility, diskutil, etc. I suppose what I need is a partition editor. That brings to mind gparted, the GNU partition editor. According to the website at gparted.org, gparted does handle data on x86-64 computers including OS X, so I'm presuming that includes HFS+.

Over the years, I've used gparted on UNIX computers, and Linux and Windows but never on macOS. It's a serious and trustworthy application, and it's free.

Anyone out there with expertise using gparted to manipulate partitions or recover data on macOS?

paalb · Jan 30, 2023

HawkMcDuck said:
As I mentioned earlier, I have an appointment tomorrow with the Genius Bar in the city where I live. I'm hopeful (what else can I say?) that the folks there can help me recover my TBs of data.

But if not, what then?

I'm surmising here that the issue is software related, and that there's a couple of bits that need to be flipped to get my data back, or some other such magic incantation. To do that I need something stronger than Apple provides with Disk Utility, diskutil, etc. I suppose what I need is a partition editor. That brings to mind gparted, the GNU partition editor. According to the website at gparted.org, gparted does handle data on x86-64 computers including OS X, so I'm presuming that includes HFS+.

Over the years, I've used gparted on UNIX computers, and Linux and Windows but never on macOS. It's a serious and trustworthy application, and it's free.

Anyone out there with expertise using gparted to manipulate partitions or recover data on macOS?

For your HFS disks try https://www.alsoft.com/ DiskWarrior. Saved a lot of disks for me.

HawkMcDuck · Jan 30, 2023

paalb said:
For your HFS disks try https://www.alsoft.com/ DiskWarrior. Saved a lot of disks for me.

@paalb Thanks for the tip about Alsoft, I'll be doing that.

FYI, I went to the Genius Bar at the Apple store today. I was very fortunate to get someone knowledgeable with Mac Pros and with over ten years experience with Apple. He ran my Mac Pro through Apple's diagnostics, and everything (logic board, RAM, boot drive, etc.) checked out. He admitted that this was a unique issue that he hadn't seen previously. After a pretty good look, he said he was sure it would not be possible to resurrect any of the inaccessible hard drives. Of course this had been my biggest fear.

One thing we did agree on was that whatever caused all of the hard drives to get erased must have been a "quick erase", or otherwise it would have taken eons to do what Apple terms a "security erase" (zero out) on 16TB of data. So he felt that it might be possible to recover some of the erased data. I sure hope so.

Fortunately I did have most--but not all--of the data backed up separately on other computers. But I ask, what are the chances and who would have thought that ALL of the data in every partition on every hard drive except the boot drive would be erased simultaneously? Which is what apparently happened. I don't even know of a command to do that.

After more than forty years working with computers and software, for large and small companies, for universities, and for myself, I have to say this is certainly the weirdest and possibly the worst issue I've encountered.

Thanks to all for your help and suggestions!

Sikh · Jan 30, 2023

HawkMcDuck said:
... Fortunately I did have most--but not all--of the data backed up separately on other computers.

After more than forty years working with computers and software ...

I hate to say this but if you have been working with computers for more than fourty years, why is your data not backed up to EXTERNAL STORAGE instead of "Other Computers"?

This isnt the first time other hard drives in a system were left inaccessible after an OS installer was ran. This has happened with many windows installers (and updates). Usually it just removes partitions on the other hard drives but leaves the data intact but ive seen it completely nuke all drives attached for absolutely no reason. This hasnt happened to me with a Linux or MacOS installer but its always possible.

Regardless of the issues ive experienced above, if im "reinstalling the OS" on a computer that has data on it, I always disconnect and/or backup the data before continuing. Mistakes can and will be made, be it by you or the installer itself.

HawkMcDuck · Jan 30, 2023

Sikh said:
I hate to say this but if you have been working with computers for more than fourty years, why is your data not backed up to EXTERNAL STORAGE instead of "Other Computers"?

This isnt the first time other hard drives in a system were left inaccessible after an OS installer was ran. This has happened with many windows installers (and updates). Usually it just removes partitions on the other hard drives but leaves the data intact but ive seen it completely nuke all drives attached for absolutely no reason. This hasnt happened to me with a Linux or MacOS installer but its always possible.

Regardless of the issues ive experienced above, if im "reinstalling the OS" on a computer that has data on it, I always disconnect and/or backup the data before continuing. Mistakes can and will be made, be it by you or the installer itself.

I guess you didn't read through my long, rambling description--my apologies--of the issue as it wasn't caused by an OS installer. Things were a little more complicated than that. And, as I said, most but not all of my data was backed up. The important stuff was indeed backed up on external storage, some of it on other computers, and--unfortunately--the remainder got zapped.

Maybe this is something you see happen often, but I haven't ever seen all the hard drives and partitions on a Mac Pro get erased simultaneously for any reason. Nor did the Apple tech I worked with today, who said he had over ten years experience and was familiar with the Mac Pro. Nor anyone else except you that I've communicated with. So it's not something I planned for.

I understand that people who reply on these boards are trying to be helpful, but I do wish folks who make assumptions would at least make an effort to read and try to comprehend the information before shooting from the lip. That is something that I hope I learned over the years.

MP 1,1-5,1 2012 Mac Pro hard disks disabled after system spontaneously locked with a PIN code

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