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Rolomoto

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 19, 2014
42
0
I have a 2012 mac mini with a 250GB SSD and a 1 TB HD, both internal. I was using the SSD to boot but then it wouldn't boot so I did an internet recovery and Mavericks was installed on the the 1 TB HD. Now I can't see the SSD in finder. It is in disk utility which lists it as a 250 GB disk with a nested disk called disk0s2 (which is greyed out). I ran verify disk and repair disk on the SSD and it checked out fine. The disk0s2 is greyed out so I can't do anything with it and it won't mount either. So how can I get this SSD to be my working boot again? Thanks
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if you know you don't have any essential data on it, try erasing it using disk utility and then boot from the recovery partition and see if it's an option to install to it from there.
 
What system is (or was) installed on the SSD?
If it was 10.13 or higher, then it would have been formatted as APFS, and would not be visible on an older system.
An APFS volume certainly would be invisible when booted to Mavericks.
You would want to boot to an installer, such as Mojave, or Catalina, where the Disk Utility would be able to view and also to run First Aid on that SSD.
 
The SSD had catalina on it, which I now have on the other drive too. I tried all the operations in disk utility but they all failed.

I ran first aid and the operation failed: The partition map needs to be repaired because there’s a problem with the EFI system partition’s file system. : (-69766)
I tried partition and it failed: Couldn’t modify partition map. : (-69874)
I tried to erase it and it failed: Wiping volume data to prevent future accidental probing failed. : (-69825)
 
Looks like you need to erase the SSD, then clean-install Catalina.
Be sure to select the device, and not just the partition (which probably won't help you)
Disk Utility: choose Show All Devices from the View dropdown in Disk Utility's menubar. Then, choose the device (top item showing the manufacturer info for the SSD, not just the partition), then click Erase. That should only take a few seconds. Name the new partition whatever you like, then reinstall Catalina. Restore your other data and files from your backup. This would be one of those times that will make a current backup worth the effort :cool:
 
I tried to erase it and it would not erase, I get an error message: Wiping volume data to prevent future accidental probing failed. : (-69825)
 
Try the Erase again, but don't try to use security settings (like secure erase, or encrypted formats. SSDs can't do the older "write zeroes to all blocks". Just Erase, choosing only Mac OS Extended (Journaled), NOT one of the encrypted or Case-Sensitive options.
 
Have you:
- opened disk utility
- gone to the "view" menu and choose "Show All Devices"?
 
I took the disc out and it loaded in an external enclosure and I was able to use disc utility. I wiped it and put it back in and now it works. I noticed problems starting after downloading the latest Catalina and I am wondering if it somehow corrupted the drive.
 
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