Erased HD on MacBook Pro- Won't Work Now. Please help.

[Christopher11]

I really am grateful for your time. Thank you.

 

[Christopher11]

Oh it worked perfectly fine before. No issues.

 

[orionquest]

I would try and reformat your SSD again, removing all partitions and volumes and starting completely fresh, choosing AFPS. Not sure what format you chose when you did it intially, but that screen shot is concerning when it states "partition map not supported" is a bit troublesome.

Do you recall how you erased/formatted your SSD when this all started?

 

[Christopher11]

I would try and reformat your SSD again, removing all partitions and volumes and starting completely fresh, choosing AFPS. Not sure what format you chose when you did it intially, but that screen shot is concerning when it states "partition map not supported" is a bit troublesome.

Do you recall how you erased/formatted your SSD when this all started?

Hey, thank you. Yes, I did choose AFPS. I looked it up and it said that was best for SSD. Do you think it will let me reformat?

 

[Brian33]

when it states "partition map not supported" is a bit troublesome.

That is a really good catch, @orionquest ! It should say "GUID Partition Map".

I think he needs to re-partition the internal device, if possible. There should be one partition, GUID scheme. I believe when you repartition with Disk Utility, it will also format, so you'll end up with one volume.

@Christopher11 , which macOS do you want on the machine? (I'd recommend Monterey.)

What gets installed depends upon which keys you hold down during boot, and what OS your MBP came with. From what I can tell, 2016 MBPs came with Sierra, and Sierra cannot read or format APFS. So if you boot with Cmd-Option-Shift-R, you will boot into Sierra Internet Recovery, which will not understand APFS. But, it should be able to repartition and format the internal SSD as HFS, which is what you want for Sierra.

If you boot with Cmd-Option-R (no Shift key), you will boot into Monterey Internet Recovery. I think this is what you have been doing. In this case you'd be installing Monterey, and you'd want to repartition and use APFS format.

 

[orionquest]

That is a really good catch, @orionquest ! It should say "GUID Partition Map".

I think he needs to re-partition the internal device, if possible. There should be one partition, GUID scheme. I believe when you repartition with Disk Utility, it will also format, so you'll end up with one volume.

@Christopher11 , which macOS do you want on the machine? (I'd recommend Monterey.)

What gets installed depends upon which keys you hold down during boot, and what OS your MBP came with. From what I can tell, 2016 MBPs came with Sierra, and Sierra cannot read or format APFS. So if you boot with Cmd-Option-Shift-R, you will boot into Sierra Internet Recovery, which will not understand APFS. But, it should be able to repartition and format the internal SSD as HFS, which is what you want for Sierra.

If you boot with Cmd-Option-R (no Shift key), you will boot into Monterey Internet Recovery. I think this is what you have been doing. In this case you'd be installing Monterey, and you'd want to repartition and use APFS format.

Thanks!

Yes agree, reformat with only 1 partition. (Apple's new way of containers is really bonky, dislike it)

I think you are onto something here with the drive format and OS support. IF they truly meant Sierra, and not High Sierra, then your mention of APFS not being supported will be correct!

This is one of those areas where Apple lets down users and they get caught trying to do something with a new feature/method and older OS's, and there is no real warning etc.

Once you get things going I'd recommend Mojave myself but I am a bit basis.

This mystery might be closer to being solved!

 

[DeltaMac]

If you are booted to the Sierra installer, Sierra does not know what to do with APFS format.
You need to erase the SSD completely, so the extra volumes that are part of the APFS drive (ex. preboot, recovery, vm are gone!
Choose to erase after choosing the line starting with "Apple SSD SM02..."
Set the format as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled). After erasing you should then have only the line for the drive as you have named it, such as "Macintosh HD". You can name it anything you like - Macintosh is just the name that Apple chooses to use. (You will still see the line for "AppleSSD SM02...", as that is the manufacturer's info line, if you have selected to show all devices - which is another choice that Sierra does not have. You will see both lines, but not more, after a full erase of the device.
And, after doing that full erase, you should then be able to install Sierra... should work this time.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Try this. Follow each step EXACTLY as I present it.

1. Power down. All the way off.

2. Press the power on button and IMMEDIATELY hold down:
Command-OPTION-R
(keep holding them down for a while).

You are booting to INTERNET recovery.

3. You'll need your wifi password. Be patient as the globe spins and the utilities load.

4. When you get to internet utilities, open Disk Utility (NOT Safari).

5. VERY IMPORTANT STEP: go to the "view" menu and choose "Show ALL devices".

6. Now look at "the list on the left". The TOPMOST item is your physical drive inside. We need to ERASE it.

7. Click on the drive and erase it to APFS, GUID partition format.

8. When the erase is done, quit disk utility and open the OS installer.

9. Start clicking through. The Mac will restart one or more times, and the screen will go black for a minute or more with no other indication of activity. BE PATIENT.

10. When the install is done, you should see the initial setup screen (choose your language).
What you do next is UP TO YOU.

Are you going to restore from a backup?
Are you going to sell it?
Are you going to start fresh?

PRINT OUT THIS POST.
Keep it beside you and check off each item as you go along.

 

[DeltaMac]

The one flaw is that the OP is booting to Internet Recovery, which is using Sierra. The Disk Utility in Sierra does not have the choice to show all devices. It will be showing all devices by default, but the choice to do that is not there. Sierra also does not know anything about APFS, and does not give APFS as a choice for the erase format.
Even if the Disk Utility in Sierra would show an APFS format drive (and it does), SIerra will not install on an APFS drive, which would explain the problem that OP is experiencing
Mac OS Extended (Journaled) will be fine, as intalling/updating to a newer system after Sierra will automatically change the boot drive to APFS

 

[Fishrrman]

Delta wrote:
"The one flaw is that the OP is booting to Internet Recovery, which is using Sierra"

Hmmmm....
Clear this up for me.

When one boots to "internet recovery" (command-OPTION-R) on a 2010-later Mac that is capable of doing so, will not Apple's servers always offer "the latest supported version" of the OS, depending on which Mac the user has?

Seems to me, in order to get offered "an earlier version" (than the latest version), one must boot to the special version of internet recovery, "command-SHIFT-OPTION-R". Then Apple's servers will offer the OS version that shipped with that Mac (or the nearest equivalent).

The OP has a 2016 MPB. According to everymac.com the 2016 MBP shipped with 10.12 (Sierra) and the last supported version of the OS it runs is 12.x (Monterey).

So... shouldn't a boot to internet recovery result in Apple's servers offering the OP Monterey?

If he wants to install Sierra, he should be booting to "command-SHIFT-OPTION-R". That should get him 12.6, I believe.

 

[DeltaMac]

Probably -- maybe.
But, the OP was showing a screenshot from the Sierra Disk Utility, so assumed that OP was, in fact booting to Internet Recovery. Not specifically from one of the optional choices, but to the native boot, which he stated was attempting (and failing) to install Sierra.
All I was suggesting was a better way to install Sierra (one that actually has a chance of installing), by erasing the APFS drive setup completely.
Sierra, of course, won't install until OP will do that full erase.

 

[Christopher11]

Hey guys, going to try all these extremely helpful and well written suggestions a little later today. Sincerely grateful for your time and expertise. Thank you. We'll get this solved yet. ;

 

[Christopher11]

That is a really good catch, @orionquest ! It should say "GUID Partition Map".

I think he needs to re-partition the internal device, if possible. There should be one partition, GUID scheme. I believe when you repartition with Disk Utility, it will also format, so you'll end up with one volume.

@Christopher11 , which macOS do you want on the machine? (I'd recommend Monterey.)

What gets installed depends upon which keys you hold down during boot, and what OS your MBP came with. From what I can tell, 2016 MBPs came with Sierra, and Sierra cannot read or format APFS. So if you boot with Cmd-Option-Shift-R, you will boot into Sierra Internet Recovery, which will not understand APFS. But, it should be able to repartition and format the internal SSD as HFS, which is what you want for Sierra.

If you boot with Cmd-Option-R (no Shift key), you will boot into Monterey Internet Recovery. I think this is what you have been doing. In this case you'd be installing Monterey, and you'd want to repartition and use APFS format.

Whoa I think this is working! Or it's doing something different anyway. Thank you! Will check back in a minute. It's installing Monterey.

 

[Christopher11]

It worked. Thank you Brian33, thank you sincerely to everyone for the detailed and excellent help on this thread.