Accidentally Deleted "Macintosh HD" in Disk Utility MBP 2017 Intel

[Rutiger1999]

I was trying to prepare the computer to sell. I've gone thru a lot of the advice on the forum with no success. I have a Time Machine back up and the most recent operating system installed was Monterey.
Here's what I've done so far (in order):
1) Internet Recovery (command R) - I was able to get to the "macOS Utilities"
2) Reinstall macOS - defaulted to Sierra. Tried it three times - Didn't work:

3) Tried to "Restore From Time Machine Backup" - Didn't work

4) Tried to "Erase" the drives (all of them) for Time Machine - Didn't work:

I have no idea what to do now. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[sevoneone]

It looks like you have the internet recovery disk selected when trying to erase/format. The Apple APFS Media is the RAM disk your Mac downloaded and booted internet recovery from.

Select the one that says Apple SSD just underneath then click on erase.

 

[Rutiger1999]

I tried that and I got this error message:

I tried mounting the drive and the button is ghosted.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

I was trying to prepare the computer to sell. I've gone thru a lot of the advice on the forum with no success. I have a Time Machine back up and the most recent operating system installed was Monterey.
Here's what I've done so far (in order):
1) Internet Recovery (command R) - I was able to get to the "macOS Utilities"
2) Reinstall macOS - defaulted to Sierra. Tried it three times - Didn't work:

View attachment 1915260

3) Tried to "Restore From Time Machine Backup" - Didn't work
View attachment 1915061
4) Tried to "Erase" the drives (all of them) for Time Machine - Didn't work:

View attachment 1915064View attachment 1915065
I have no idea what to do now. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Wasn't that a date thing with the target computer? I remember having to tweak the date on a system that I was reinstalling macOS on, and I tink it was High Sierra. It made absolutely no sense, but after changing the date, in recovery, the OS installed fine. *shrug* Made no sense, but worked. Just throwing this out there...

 

[Weaselboy]

Internet Recovery (command R) - I was able to get to the "macOS Utilities"

You need to do a command-option-r boot to get to Internet Recovery to get this done.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"1) Internet Recovery (command R) - I was able to get to the "macOS Utilities""

That IS NOT "internet recovery".
It IS "the recovery partition".
THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING.

You said you have a tm backup, is that right?
So... it doesn't matter if you "wipe" the MBP, right...?

Here's how to erase the drive using INTERNET recovery (and then how to restore the OS).
WARNING WARNING WARNING
Doing this will WIPE OUT anything that is on the internal drive !!!

PRINT OUT THIS MSG, and keep it beside you as you progress.

1. Power down, all the way off.

2. Press the power on button and IMMEDIATELY hold down:
Command-OPTION-R

You will need your wifi password.
The internet utilities take a while to load -- BE PATIENT.

3. When you get to the utilities menu, open disk utility.

4. VERY IMPORTANT: Go to the disk utility "view" menu and choose "show all devices".
(If there is no "view" menu, just proceed to step 5 ... but if there is, you MUST choose "show all devices")

5. Look at "the list on the left". The TOPMOST item should be the physical drive inside the MPB.

6. Click on the physical drive and then click "erase".

7. If you are going to install High Sierra or earlier, erase to "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format".
If you are going to install Mojave or later, erase to "APFS, GUID partition format".

8. When the erase is done, quit disk utility. The drive is now completely "empty".

9. Open the OS installer and start "clicking through". The Mac will restart one or more times, and the screen may go black for a minute or two with no indications otherwise. Just be patient.

10. If the install is successful, you should see the initial setup screen (choose your language).

At this point, you need to decide what to do next.
If all you want to do is present it to the new owner, just QUIT the installer RIGHT NOW. Or press and hold the power-on button until the MBP shuts off.

That way, the new owner will open it, boot it, and it will offer a setup -- just as if it were "new".

OR...
You can continue through setup, and when setup assistant asks if you wish to restore your data, connect the tm backup and let setup assistant use that.

 

[sevoneone]

I tried that and I got this error message:
View attachment 1915255
I tried mounting the drive and the button is ghosted.

What happens if you click on Partition instead of Erase?

 

[Rutiger1999]

Hi Everyone and thank you for all the the advice. I finally got things to work and I will explain how.
1 ) Fishrrman, thank you for the one key factor that made this possible: Command-OPTION-R and not Command-R. That one f**cking button made all the difference. I was able to erase the drives (before I was receiving error messages).
2) Now that I was able to erase the drives, I deviated from Fisheeman's suggested steps and decided to make a time machine back up attempt. It took a while but what ended up happening was this:

3) When I booted back up again (with Command-OPTION-R) to my surprise and delight, the "macOS utilities" presented me with Monterey instead of Sierra and I installed Monterey.
4) Once I had Monterey working I was able to copy from Time Machine and everything was fine.

Lesson here is Command-OPTION-R or more importantly don't delete Macintosh HD!

Thank you for the help.

 

[Rutiger1999]

Sorry, credit to Weaselboy also who made the same suggestion.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Glad it worked out. You are 'current', which is awesome!

 

[rhinotago]

I'm trying to do the same thing, but when I hold down command-option-R then select my network, it takes me to the password screen but for some unknown reason it won't let me type the password. The cursor is flashing in the password field and the escape and return keys work, but it's not allowing me to type anything (I have tried typing the password even though it doesn't display anything but it still doesn't work). Any suggestions greatly appreciated!