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Accidentally deleted disk0s2, created 1 million problems

T

tmross

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 18, 2021
8
2
Mid 2010 Macbook Pro still running 10.6.8 (need my old Adobe apps), decided to make a partition to run High Sierra. So I created the partition, used my Snow Leopard installation DVD to install Snow Leopard, and from there updated to High Sierra. There were problems, whenever booting up to the High Sierra partition the apple logo and progress bar would appear and it would take several minutes for it to boot up, as opposed to the old Snow Leopard partition which takes less than 30 seconds to boot up. Some research into this symptom indicated something was not running properly so I decided to delete the new partition altogether and start from scratch. So I did delete it, but while I was in disk utility I noticed a hidden partition "disk0s2" I didn't know what this was and hadn't seen it there before so assumed it was some remnant from the High Sierra partition, I deleted it, and that was not smart.

I did create another partition, but this time my Snow Leopard Installation DVD did not work. I booted into Internet Recovery Mode and "Reinstall High Sierra" was the only option in the MacOs Utilities thing. Reinstalling Snow Leopard was not an option. So I installed High Sierra on the new new partition, and the weird apple logo / progress bar thing is still occuring with each boot of that partition.

The Snow Leopard partition still works and boots fine, however I can no longer boot into local recovery mode, the 10.6 Installation disk doesn't work anymore. I tried downloading the El Capitan installer, it downloads but it will not open. Something about deleting that disk0s2 partition has screwed up my ability to reinstall Snow Leopard or update to a later OS, seemingly on any partition now. I made several fruitless attempts to create a bootable installer from a USB drive using a downloaded 10.6 iso and it always fails. I also tried to make a bootable installer from the install el capitan app, via instructions on the Apple site, also always failed.

So I'm not really sure what to do here - It concerns me to not have any way to reinstall my OS or recover in the event I really need to, and I would like to have this separate High Sierra partition functioning properly (no time consuming progress bar at startup). Is there any way to recreate that disk0s2 partition? Or do I need to totally wipe my hard drive and reset to factory, and do a clean install of Snow Leopard? And how can I do a clean install of Snow Leopard if I'm unable to create a bootable installation USB and my installation DVD doesnt work?
 
Just some remarks and a few questions to better understand the situation:

- If boot time for SL is about 30sec , I assume the drive is still the original (slow) mechanical HDD.
A SSD would improve boot time and performance significantly.
My MBP 2009 booted Snow Leopard in ~ 15 sec on a SSD.
- Seeing a progress bar at startup is normal on "newer" OSes e.g. High Sierra.
- More recent OSes usually take longer to boot, this is normal (but several minutes is not).
- If the HS partition is APFS format , boot time and performance is simply bad when using a HDD.
APFS is a newer format introduced with High Sierra; for HS format can be chosen Mac OS Extended or APFS.
For Mojave and up , APFS is mandatory for drives with an OS.
- installing SL first on the 2nd partition is not necessary, you could have installed HS directly, booted from the 1st partition (Snow Leopard) and running the HS installer.
- deleting a hidden/unknown partition is not a good idea

- if you boot HS and open Disk Utility what format is the HS partition and what other volumes are shown?
A screenshot would be very helpful. ( when in DiskUtility set "view" to "show all devices".)
- if you boot HS, open Terminal and type : diskutil list
could you post a screenshot of that too?
- If you boot and keep "option" pressed , how many volumes show up to choose from?

If you want post some screenshots and we'll go from there.
I hope you have a good backup of all your data!
 
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My advice if you want to "fix it right":

First, create a BOOTABLE CLONED BACKUP of your working 10.6.8 partition using CarbonCopyCloner on an external USB3 drive.

CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days, so this will cost you nothing.

IMPORTANT: CCC may ask if you wish to clone the recovery partition as part of the backup. YES, you want to do this.

Next, BOOT FROM the cloned backup.
Does it boot up and run?
If so, GREAT, on to the next step.

Open disk utility and ERASE the ENTIRE INTERNAL DRIVE.
WIPE IT OUT.
Erase it to "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format".
I'd run disk utility's "first aid" feature on it, just to make sure it's ok.
When done, quit disk utility.

Now, open CCC and "re-clone" the contents of the backup BACK TO the internal drive.

Again, CCC may ask if you wish to clone the recovery partition to the internal drive. YES, do this again.

When done, go to the startup disk pref pane and RE-DESIGNATE the internal as your boot drive.

Power down, all the way off.
Press the power on button.
Do you get a good boot?

If so, I'd suggest that you DO NOT attempt to install High Sierra to a partition on the drive.
Particularly because of APFS, I'd recommend that if you want to use High Sierra, that you install it on an EXTERNAL drive, preferably an SSD.

I realize it's "less convenient" to have to attach an external drive to boot HS, but doing it this way will probably result in fewer problems...
 
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Thank you for the replies. I'm not beholden to High Sierra, I just wanted a newer OS to run an up to date web browser. Would using Sierra avoid this APFS issue? If theres a consensus on the optimal OS for a mid 2010 MBP I'll use that.
 
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tmross said:
Thank you for the replies. I'm not beholden to High Sierra, I just wanted a newer OS to run an up to date web browser. Would using Sierra avoid this APFS issue?
Click to expand...
YW.
Yes Sierra is the same format as SL.
Personally I'd first get this harddisk mess sorted out with a perfectly running Snow Leopard as a safety net before starting with partitions and/or multiple OS setups.
If you want post some screenshots as in post #2
 
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"Would using Sierra avoid this APFS issue?"

Sierra is a smooth-running OS, although it too is not quite "up-to-date". But I'm using it right now on this 2015 MacBook Pro.

Again, I would recommend you do what I suggest in reply 3 above.
Get back, get back, get back to where you once belonged.

And at that point, start the long and winding road ahead.

Again, if you want to experiment with 10.12 Sierra, try it on an external drive first.
This way you can "check everything out" WITHOUT TOUCHING YOUR SNOW LEOPARD INSTALLATION.

Once you're satisfied, THEN it may be time to "make a change"...
 
Alright tried the cloning method. Not sure if the problem is solved. Still can't boot into local recovery mode. Internet recovery only gives me the option to reinstall High Sierra, despite the HS partition no longer existing. If there was a problem with the SL partition, wouldn't cloning it just clone the problem too? I guess a better question is - what exactly did I delete when I deleted that hidden partition? Perhaps the only way is to reinstall SL fresh... but Apple says they can't send me a new installation DVD (I guess they don't do that anymore?) and they suggested I reinstall SL via Internet Recovery, but like I said Internet Recovery only gives me High Sierra as a reinstall option.

Good news is I actually am able to use the app based installers (e.g. 10.10 and later), despite what I said in my first post. Before I did the cloning thing and wiped my internal drive I made a partition and installed Sierra to see what happened. So its good to know I could do that again if I need to abandon this SL ship.

diskutil list, after wipe and recloning:
Screen shot 2021-09-19 at 8.57.43 PM.png


Thanks yall
 
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Occurred to me I've been using a 10.6 iso to create the ill-fated USB installation disks. My MBP shipped with 10.6.3, says it right on the dead installation DVD. I'm going to try creating a USB installer with a 10.6.3 iso, and see if it will let me do a reinstall then.
 
Keep in mind that your 2010 MacBook Pro shipped with 10.6.3 with a special build. It needs a (slightly) newer version of the Snow Leopard installer, which would be the DVD that originally shipped with your MBPro. If you download a 10.6.3 iso from somewhere, it will likely be the commercial version of the Snow Leopard installer, which won't work on your MBPro. Despite the fact that it would also be 10.6.3, it needs the modified version of the installer that came with your MBPro. The only way to use the commercial 10.6.3 is to install on your hard drive from another, older Mac that also supports Snow Leopard, but doesn't need the special build. Update that install on the older Mac, and that should then boot your 2010 MBPro.
(Yes, it's an adventure to install the original Snow Leopard if your have lost or damaged the original SL DVD!)
 
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Bummer. So would it work if I used a version later than 10.6.3? Like 10.6.4 or later? Or does it have to be this specific version of 10.6.3 that shipped with my MBP in order to work at all? If I wanted to do a reinstall or just a wipe and clean install...
 
Apple never released a commercial version of the full SL installer higher than 10.6.3
Yes, you would need the original DVD that shipped with your MBPro, or a copy of that version. Again, it was never sold to the public, only made available to those Macs that needed that special build.

Is the original DVD damaged/scratched broken? Or just doesn't seem to install correctly (not physically damaged)?
If the DVD seems OK, you CAN make a bootable USB from that, using Disk Utility/Restore function. (best results would be on a Mac, using an OS X system older than El Capitan)
 
I've tried to make a bootable USB from the DVD several times and it always fails. I think whats happening is the DVD drive is actually scratching the DVD, I've seen some others report this happening, it spits it out with rings etched all around the center. I'm going to try and run it through a DVD scratch remove machine and see if it can be salvaged. I suppose I could invest in an external DVD drive if it is indeed my DVD drive thats chewing the disk up every time. I'm hoping its just scratched and not the contents damaged, I was able to use it successfully last week to install 10.6 on a partition but it has not worked since.
 
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OP wrote:
"Alright tried the cloning method. Not sure if the problem is solved. Still can't boot into local recovery mode. Internet recovery only gives me the option to reinstall High Sierra, despite the HS partition no longer existing."

My guess is that you don't have a recovery partition on the internal drive.

There is a small free AppleScript/app out there that may help CREATE a fresh recovery partition.
It's named (of course) "Recovery Partition Creator".
You can find it here:

Recovery Partition Creator (RPC) 4.0.4 Download – Mac OS X

Download Recovery Partition Creator (RPC) AppleScript application to help you create a recovery partition on your Mac OS X boot drive.
becomethesolution.com becomethesolution.com
You want version 4.0.4 (for Snow Leopard)

I make NO promises that this will solve the problem.
But... it may be worth a try.
If things go wrong, just
- boot once more from the cloned backup
- erase the internal drive
- re-clone the external backup BACK TO the internal drive.

I recall using this once myself to create a recovery partition, and it worked.
I'd say it's worth a try.
 
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How did you boot into Internet Recovery? There are different key combinations that determines which version to install. It sounds like maybe you did Command-R, but I'm not sure if 10.6.3 is still available using Option-Shift-Command-R.
  • Command-R: Start up from the built-in macOS Recovery System. Use this key combination to reinstall the latest macOS that was installed on your system, or to use the other apps in macOS Recovery.
  • Option-Command-R: Start up from macOS Recovery over the internet. Use this key combination to reinstall macOS and upgrade to the latest version of macOS that’s compatible with your Mac.
  • Option-Shift-Command-R: Start up from macOS Recovery over the internet. Use this key combination to reinstall the version of macOS that came with your Mac or the closest version that’s still available.
 
Command R brings me straight into Internet Recovery, because local recovery is missing, presumably. I had not tried Option Shift Command R, I'll try that and see what happens.
 
I doubt if that app posted above does anything at all with Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard never came with (did not install) any recovery partition.
That feature did not exist until Lion was released.
Also, Internet Recovery has not ever offered anything older than Lion.
 
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Even if that app works, this is still not a safety net .
If the drive itself fails, a recovery partition is useless.
IMHO a much safer strategy is to restore the scratched original installer DVD , or make a bootable (and tested) USB installer.

Additionally I'd keep at least 1 regularly updated backup at an external disk.
 
Yes, I saw that same download earlier today. I downloaded it, and made a USB booter from the image.
Boots and installs, so the installer is good.
However, not helpful for the OP, because it is build 10D575, which is the commercial installer, so not directly useful on a MBPro that needs a later build. That download won't boot the OPs MBPro.
 
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