how do i find my internal hard drive on a mbair??

[Sigh3012]

I can't find my internal hard drive when trying to reinstall my mac os x software. I have a late 2010 macbook air. 120 gb internal flash hard drive that isn't showing up in disk utilities on the left side. I have snow leopard startup flash disk.

The following is on the left side of disk utilities when I run it from the start up flash drive.


When I selected "disk 1", it said: This partation is the startup disk, it can not be erased. on the bottom it says: disk description: apple disk image; connection bus: disk image; total capacity 8.37 gb; disk write status: read/write; partition manp scheme: apple partition map. So I think that's the startup flash stick.



The "apple usb disk" has a cd next to it in the left side. and the following: disk description: apple usb disk; connection bus: usb; connection type: external; burn support:unsupported; capabilites: click for more information

 

[uaecasher]

I can't find my internal hard drive when trying to reinstall my mac os x software. I have a late 2010 macbook air. 120 gb internal flash hard drive that isn't showing up in disk utilities on the left side. I have snow leopard startup flash disk.

The following is on the left side of disk utilities when I run it from the start up flash drive.


When I selected "disk 1", it said: This partation is the startup disk, it can not be erased. on the bottom it says: disk description: apple disk image; connection bus: disk image; total capacity 8.37 gb; disk write status: read/write; partition manp scheme: apple partition map. So I think that's the startup flash stick.



The "apple usb disk" has a cd next to it in the left side. and the following: disk description: apple usb disk; connection bus: usb; connection type: external; burn support:unsupported; capabilites: click for more information

You need to boot from your USB flash disk, when booting up, keep holding the alt (option) key, it will show you a list of start up disks, choose your apple startup flash stick.

 

[Makosuke]

uaecasher - I'm pretty sure the OP is already starting up from their USB OS install disk; the problem, if I'm reading correctly, is that the MBA's internal SSD isn't showing up in the left hand column of Disk Utility once booted from the USB drive.

Sigh3012 - If that's the case, your SSD may have completely failed. Normally, in the left column, you'd see some name for the USB boot disk's hardware, with the volume (disk 1, it sounds like) indented underneath it, some name for the external optical drive (if attached), which it also sounds like you're seeing. And there should be a third piece of hardware listed, with a volume (probably Macintosh HD) indented under it for the internal SSD.

If you're not seeing that third item anywhere, the usual explanation would be that it's dead. Are you able to start up from the internal SSD (that is, does it work when not booted from the USB key), or is that also not working?

The other thing you could do is run System Profiler from the USB key and see what shows up under the Serial-ATA line--you should see the internal SSD listed there if it's responding at all.

 

[Sigh3012]

Yeah. maksuke..I"m already running from the usb drive. And the internal hard drive wasn't showing up on the left hand side. It used to say that third item you were talking about then it didn't appear when I shut it down and didn't know how to mount the hd. So when I turned it on again it was gone. I don't think the internal ssd is working since it won't show up as one of the disk to reinstall the mac os. Under my serial ata line in system profiler it says NVidia MCP89 AHCI.

So if my hard drive failed. Would apple's genius bar be able to recover anything from it? Do they even try? Or is it garbage now. Luckily, I did back up all my files before I tried reinstalling mac os.

uaecasher - I'm pretty sure the OP is already starting up from their USB OS install disk; the problem, if I'm reading correctly, is that the MBA's internal SSD isn't showing up in the left hand column of Disk Utility once booted from the USB drive.

Sigh3012 - If that's the case, your SSD may have completely failed. Normally, in the left column, you'd see some name for the USB boot disk's hardware, with the volume (disk 1, it sounds like) indented underneath it, some name for the external optical drive (if attached), which it also sounds like you're seeing. And there should be a third piece of hardware listed, with a volume (probably Macintosh HD) indented under it for the internal SSD.

If you're not seeing that third item anywhere, the usual explanation would be that it's dead. Are you able to start up from the internal SSD (that is, does it work when not booted from the USB key), or is that also not working?

The other thing you could do is run System Profiler from the USB key and see what shows up under the Serial-ATA line--you should see the internal SSD listed there if it's responding at all.

 

[Makosuke]

Under my serial ata line in system profiler it says NVidia MCP89 AHCI.

Yep, normally there would be the hardware for the hard drive indented under that entry (that's the SATA controller); if it's not there, the computer isn't even seeing something attached.

So if my hard drive failed. Would apple's genius bar be able to recover anything from it? Do they even try?

Since it's not even showing up in System Profiler it's stone dead, meaning no, they won't be able to recover anything at all from it, nor would they try. Assuming the computer's still under warranty they will replace it, though.

Glad to hear you have a backup!