Hard drive won't mount after deleting parallels and partition

[erickrb]

Hello,

My hard drive won't mount after deleting parallels and getting rid of the partition. When I go to the disk utility it detects the drive, but it's greyed out. I also can verify it, and repair it, and all of that goes just fine. I can also click on mount, but nothing happens.



I've also tried the same going through the terminal as well. Mounting, force mounting, creating a volume to mount it to, etc. Nothing seems to work.



I was able to get it to work for a little bit when I was messing with partitions, but I didn't get the prompt that it would delete what was already on the disk, and it didn't.



Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[skaertus]

Hello,

My hard drive won't mount after deleting parallels and getting rid of the partition. When I go to the disk utility it detects the drive, but it's greyed out. I also can verify it, and repair it, and all of that goes just fine. I can also click on mount, but nothing happens.



I've also tried the same going through the terminal as well. Mounting, force mounting, creating a volume to mount it to, etc. Nothing seems to work.



I was able to get it to work for a little bit when I was messing with partitions, but I didn't get the prompt that it would delete what was already on the disk, and it didn't.



Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Have you tried erasing all the content and formatting the partition?

I had a lot of trouble when I erased a Windows partition without using the Bootcamp assistant. I ended up having to recover my Mac and reinstall macOS so I could use the partition again.

 

[erickrb]

Have you tried erasing all the content and formatting the partition?

I had a lot of trouble when I erased a Windows partition without using the Bootcamp assistant. I ended up having to recover my Mac and reinstall macOS so I could use the partition again.

I'm really trying not to loose all of my data. Last resort. If I have to, I will. Was hoping there was another solution.

Since the drive isn't mountable, I can't even use it as an external drive to access the files on there to recover the files.

I can use iBoySoft and recover the data, just trying to avoid the cost. Again, if I have to, I'll do that, pay the fee, recover what I need, and delete the whole drive to start over. But I was hoping there was a more tech savvy solution.

I did erase using the bootcamp assistant, which is odd.

 

[DeltaMac]

If the drive volume won't mount, you can try reinstalling the system.
Try to boot to the recovery system - reboot with a command-R
If you can successfully get to the recovery system, choose Reinstall macOS.
You won't lose your files, and will just reinstall the system files, finally making the system bootable again.
If that doesn't make the drive bootable again, then you will likely go for your backup. (I have to add that this would be one of those times when an active backup would be really useful... Your files are important enough to have a dedicated external backup drive, at the least)

 

[erickrb]

If the drive volume won't mount, you can try reinstalling the system.
Try to boot to the recovery system - reboot with a command-R
If you can successfully get to the recovery system, choose Reinstall macOS.
You won't lose your files, and will just reinstall the system files, finally making the system bootable again.
If that doesn't make the drive bootable again, then you will likely go for your backup. (I have to add that this would be one of those times when an active backup would be really useful... Your files are important enough to have a dedicated external backup drive, at the least)

Thanks for the reply.

I've tried the recovery route a few times, I get to the recovery systems, but then it says it can't do a reinstall because it's not mounted. Any other thoughts?

 

[DeltaMac]

Can you boot to the recovery system, then Disk Utility, and try First Aid on that unmounted volume?
If that completes, try to "Mount" the volume. If THAT succeeds (or even if it does NOT mount this time), shut down (let the Mac turn off completely)
Restart, again to the Recovery system, then try the macOS install again.

 

[Fishrrman]

This is what backups are for.

How to handle this and clean up the drive partitioning:
1. Boot to internet recovery (command-OPTION-R or command-SHIFT-OPTION-R for an older OS)
1a. Or... boot from an external boot drive

Then...
2. Open disk utility, go to the view menu and choose "show all devices".

3. In the list on the left, select the top item that represents the physical drive inside.

4. ERASE it.
a. For Mojave and later, erase to APFS with GUID partition format
b. For High Sierra and earlier, erase to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format.

Erase to a SINGLE partition.

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

6. Install a fresh copy of the OS onto the drive. When done, setup assistant should open.

7. Begin clicking through setup and have your backup ready when setup assistant asks if you wish to migrate from another drive.

8. Let setup assistant restore from the backup.

This should "get you back" to running condition with a single partition on your drive.