2013 MacBook Pro SSD Issues, Need Help

[Undfeatable]

Hello, Ive really messed up my MacBook and could use some suggestions on how to proceed/fix the issue.

The problem began with me helping my parents. They needed to move their old Mac data to a new one, so attempting to be helpful, I partitioned my 1Tb SSD and backed up their stuff. The real issue began after trying to recover the partition. I used disk utilities to reformat and ever since then, major issues have been encountered.


It freezes 4-5minutes after boot up. I can’t rejoin the partition. I can’t even back up anything not in the cloud because it freezes. So I attempted to simply reformat the entire SSD. Booted into recovery mode, but Disk Utility in recovery mode doesn’t see the SSD (just macOS Base System)! Tried going into Terminal and manually mounting the drive, but it doesn’t appear there either. I can boot into Mac OS, but the system doesn’t detect the SSD in recovery. I booted from an external Hard Drive, but still couldn’t detect the onboard SSD.

Pretty sure it has something to do with the OS being on disk2, within disk 0, but can’t mount/find it in terminal.

2013 MacBook Pro Catalina 10.15.1

 

[Audit13]

I see two drives and 3 partitions: Container disk1 with 1 partition and Container Disk2 with 2 partitions.

You want the Mac to boot from disk 1?

 

[Undfeatable]

I see two drives and 3 partitions: Container disk1 with 1 partition and Container Disk2 with 2 partitions.

You want the Mac to boot from disk 1?

Disk 1 no longer has any OS. What I am trying to is reformat the entire SSD to a single partition and reinstalled MacOS. I can’t find figure out how to format disk 2 as it doesn’t show up in Recovery Mode Terminal.

 

[Audit13]

You want to format both disk 1 and disk 2? I thought disk 2 had the backup.

 

[Undfeatable]

You want to format both disk 1 and disk 2? I thought disk 2 had the backup.

Disk 1 was reformatted, it’s blank. Disk 2 (as seen in the 2nd photo) contains my info. I don’t care about any data on the computer, I just want the entire SSD wiped and combined like new.

 

[Audit13]

Disk 1 was reformatted, it’s blank. Disk 2 (as seen in the 2nd photo) contains my info. I don’t care about any data on the computer, I just want the entire SSD wiped and combined like new.

You want disk 2 wiped so you have disk 1 with 1 partition and disk 2 with one partition. Is this correct?

Did you try booting the Mac using disk utility from internet recovery (CMD+opt+r)?

 

[Undfeatable]

Here is what the entire disk looks like when booted

 

[Audit13]

Try a newer version of disk utility.

 

[Undfeatable]

You want disk 2 wiped so you have disk 1 with 1 partition and disk 2 with one partition. Is this correct?

Did you try booting the Mac using disk utility from internet recovery (CMD+opt+r)?

I don’t want a separate disk 1 or disk 2. It’s all on the same internal SSD. I want the entire 1TB combined (though I know MacOS now splits it between data and OS).
I have attempted internet recovery, but I get the same result as the normal recovery seen here
[automerge]1589828951[/automerge]

Try a newer version of disk utility.

I’ve installed the newest MacOS on an external HDD and booted from there. The internal SSD is still not visible

 

[Audit13]

Click on view all devices from the "view" down list.

 

[Undfeatable]

Click on view all devices from the "view" down list.

Yup

 

[Audit13]

Very strange indeed.

Unfortunately, I don't have any other suggestions.

 

[Undfeatable]

Very strange indeed.

Unfortunately, I don't have any other suggestions.

Thanks for trying. Hopefully someone will have an answer. Can’t find any info anywhere that remotely identifies/fixes the issue. Definitely not a dead SSD as I can boot into it, but not addressable. What’s weird is the computer still knows it exists in the info pan

 

[jaytv111]

I think you'll need to do something like regenerate the GPT table in recovery and then presumably add 1 partition, then you'll reinstall MacOS on the one partition.

Some help is available here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...oken-gpt-guid-and-unmountable-no-type-volumes

 

[Undfeatable]

I think you'll need to do something like regenerate the GPT table in recovery and then presumably add 1 partition, then you'll reinstall MacOS on the one partition.

Some help is available here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...oken-gpt-guid-and-unmountable-no-type-volumes

I can’t get sudo to work at all. Just says command not found for everything I’ve tried.

just saw the actually answer. Attempting

 

[Undfeatable]

I think you'll need to do something like regenerate the GPT table in recovery and then presumably add 1 partition, then you'll reinstall MacOS on the one partition.

Some help is available here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...oken-gpt-guid-and-unmountable-no-type-volumes

I keep getting disk busy, using disk 1 as disk 0 isn’t recognized. Installing MacOS on my HDD again hoping to remedy that issue.

 

[jaytv111]

If you have a new OS it may be able to zero the drive GPT. There's also ways of zeroing the GPT by writing random bits to the sector, like described here: https://www.cnet.com/news/tackle-stubborn-disk-partitioning-in-os-x/

Another alternative is to find a recovery-oriented OS and put it on a USB disk, your Mac should be able to boot it, then you can manually create a GPT, if the OS is allowed access to the drive.

 

[Undfeatable]

If you have a new OS it may be able to zero the drive GPT. There's also ways of zeroing the GPT by writing random bits to the sector, like described here: https://www.cnet.com/news/tackle-stubborn-disk-partitioning-in-os-x/

Another alternative is to find a recovery-oriented OS and put it on a USB disk, your Mac should be able to boot it, then you can manually create a GPT, if the OS is allowed access to the drive.

The issue still remains I can’t address disk2, it’s like it doesn’t exist, yet can still boot into it. About 10 min out from external being finished and will try anyway

 

[Undfeatable]

If you have a new OS it may be able to zero the drive GPT. There's also ways of zeroing the GPT by writing random bits to the sector, like described here: https://www.cnet.com/news/tackle-stubborn-disk-partitioning-in-os-x/

Another alternative is to find a recovery-oriented OS and put it on a USB disk, your Mac should be able to boot it, then you can manually create a GPT, if the OS is allowed access to the drive.

Booted onto the external HDD and now it doesn’t detect the SSD no matter what I do. Gpt, fdisk, diskutil list, nothing. /dev/disk0 is no where. Can still unplug the HDD and the SSD boots

 

[jaytv111]

You might want to try an alternate OS for recovery. I'm not sure why the disk would not be present in another MacOS. Sometimes the OS drivers fail due to coding errors not anticipating this problem and there's not much you can do with it as a result. So an alternative OS could manipulate the disk block device so you could zero it then reinitialize (even with the Mac installer).

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Try this one more time:
a. Boot to INTERNET recovery (command-OPTION-R)
b. When you get to the utilities, open disk utility
c. VERY IMPORTANT STEP: go to the view menu and choose "show ALL devices"
d. Can you now see the physical internal drive now (in the list on the left)?
Take a pic and post it so we can see the results of this experiment.
e. IF you CAN see it, try erasing the entire drive now.

If you cannot see the drive, I would think that it has failed.
Your next step would be to take it to an Apple Store genius bar when they re-open in your area.

 

[Undfeatable]

OP:

Try this one more time:
a. Boot to INTERNET recovery (command-OPTION-R)
b. When you get to the utilities, open disk utility
c. VERY IMPORTANT STEP: go to the view menu and choose "show ALL devices"
d. Can you now see the physical internal drive now (in the list on the left)?
Take a pic and post it so we can see the results of this experiment.
e. IF you CAN see it, try erasing the entire drive now.

If you cannot see the drive, I would think that it has failed.
Your next step would be to take it to an Apple Store genius bar when they re-open in your area.

I showed jaytv above that it didn’t show up there. I would think it has failed, but since MacOS was still booting, it must not be.
I’m currently installing Ubuntu and it’s able to detect the SSD. Hopefully once it’s installed, I’ll be able to use my external HDD with MacOS to address it and reformat it back to macOS.

 

[jaytv111]

I showed jaytv above that it didn’t show up there. I would think it has failed, but since MacOS was still booting, it must not be.
I’m currently installing Ubuntu and it’s able to detect the SSD. Hopefully once it’s installed, I’ll be able to use my external HDD with MacOS to address it and reformat it back to macOS.

Well that sounds like an improvement at least. I think you could skip a step and just zero the drive with Ubuntu booted from USB, but this is fine too.

 

[Undfeatable]

Well that sounds like an improvement at least. I think you could skip a step and just zero the drive with Ubuntu booted from USB, but this is fine too.

I attempted that. Ubuntu recognizes the drive is there, but fdisk and everything else only can see like 15gb. I attempted to 0 the entire thing and it only worked for like 2gb. It has to be something with the sectors. I’m about at the point where i send it to a professional