I have a major issue with my 2018 Mac mini (3.0 i5 six core 64/512). I just returned from a 5 day trip. The mini was sleeping as far as I remember. When I got back and tried to wake it up, it didn’t respond. I force-rebooted by holding down the power button and the mini powered up to the missing disk symbol. I then restarted into internet recovery. In Disk Utility I can see the SSD but there are no partitions or containers. When I connect the mini via target disk mode to another Mac it doesn’t show up at all. I then connected an external USB-C SSD and installed Catalina out of internet recovery (I’m pretty sure I had Big Sur on this machine but internet recovery came back with Catalina - im not 100% sure on what was installed since this is mostly used by my son). When it restarted half way through the install, the Mac informed me that the security policy doesn’t allow external boot (I don’t recall ever setting this up in any way but then again I haven’t dealt with the newish security stuff a whole lot - I remember the good old days where things just worked). The dialog said to reboot into recovery and then use the startup security utility to change the policy. Well I tried that but the utility requires me to authenticate with an admin account. This, of course, fails since there is no usable disk with an admin user. I’ve searched some and found suggestions on how to remedy this but they all require to install a new system on the internal drive first. I was hoping to get a system running externally first to see if there is anything that can be done to recover the internal drive so I don’t really want to reformat it, if that is even possible in its current condition. Does anyone have suggestions on how to best approach a solution for this situation? Thanks!
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2018 Mini SSD disappeared
- Thread starter Bremse
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Take the Mini apart, install a new SSD, and then install a new system. Connect the old SSD to a Thunderbolt or USB port and see if a commercial rescue app can restore the missing partition.
And, Oh One More Thing, Ask your son why he deleted that partition.
Do you have a second Mac? You could try the revive or restore option using the Apple configurator.
The 2018 has a soldered SSD. The entire logic board has to be replaced if it fails.
Apple Configurator User Guide for Mac
Apple Configurator makes it easy to deploy iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV devices in your school or business.
support.apple.com
The 2018 has a soldered SSD. The entire logic board has to be replaced if it fails.
Thanks for all the comments. Yeah, the SSD is not replaceable otherwise this would be easy. I’ll try Apple Configurator. And no, my son did not delete the partitions. I was the last one who used it before our trip. I’m fairly certain it’s a hardware issue with the ssd components. As long as I can get it to work with an external disk I’ll be happy.Yikes!
OP wrote:
"As long as I can get it to work with an external disk I’ll be happy."
My advice won't help you now.
It -might- help in the future.
I recommend this TO EVERYONE reading this, no matter what Mac you own.
If it has a t2 (perhaps t1 as well) chip, do this:
1. Boot to the recovery partition (intel) or into "recovery" (m-series).
2. You want to get to the "startup security" panel
3. Open startup security and DISABLE EVERYTHING there. That is, set the settings to the "lowest option" (most accessible) possible.
4. Close startup security and reboot and go on with life.
This way, if something goes wrong, you may still have a way to boot the computer "to the finder", so long as you keep a second, BOOTABLE, external drive handy. This won't guarantee success every time, but your chances will be much better.
Disabling startup security has been one of THE FIRST STEPS I take after starting a new Mac -- with both my 2018 Mini and my 2021 MacBook Pro 14".
At some point, Apple may even remove this option, but so long as one has the option to do this, again, it's something you should do.
One more suggestion for the OP:
You haven't told us "where in the world" you are, but if you are anywhere near a brick-n-mortar Apple Store, I suggest you make an appointment with the genius bar and take it to them. Might be the fastest way to get the problem diagnosed and the Mini running again.
"As long as I can get it to work with an external disk I’ll be happy."
My advice won't help you now.
It -might- help in the future.
I recommend this TO EVERYONE reading this, no matter what Mac you own.
If it has a t2 (perhaps t1 as well) chip, do this:
1. Boot to the recovery partition (intel) or into "recovery" (m-series).
2. You want to get to the "startup security" panel
3. Open startup security and DISABLE EVERYTHING there. That is, set the settings to the "lowest option" (most accessible) possible.
4. Close startup security and reboot and go on with life.
This way, if something goes wrong, you may still have a way to boot the computer "to the finder", so long as you keep a second, BOOTABLE, external drive handy. This won't guarantee success every time, but your chances will be much better.
Disabling startup security has been one of THE FIRST STEPS I take after starting a new Mac -- with both my 2018 Mini and my 2021 MacBook Pro 14".
At some point, Apple may even remove this option, but so long as one has the option to do this, again, it's something you should do.
One more suggestion for the OP:
You haven't told us "where in the world" you are, but if you are anywhere near a brick-n-mortar Apple Store, I suggest you make an appointment with the genius bar and take it to them. Might be the fastest way to get the problem diagnosed and the Mini running again.
That is very good advice and I wish I would have done that when I first got this computer. I tried Apple Configurator to revive and then reset the mini but it didn’t help. I ended up booting back into internet recovery and reformatted the internal SSD and then reinstalled Catalina. Once I had that set up I was able to boot into recovery and use the secure start utility to modify the settings such that any system on any device is allowed. I have now installed Monterey on my external SSD and will probably use that going forward. I don’t know what happened to the internal SSD but it somehow got corrupted. I don’t really trust it anymore. Before I reset everything I ran diagnostics and they came back all good. Not sure how that’s possible when the boot drive has not partitions but oh well. We have most of our stuff on iCloud (Desktop/Docs) so don’t think I lost much, other than larger downloads and video game recordings my son had done, plus I have to reinstall some programs. I guess I will use this opportunity to update everything.