iMac Retina Mid 2017 (Fusion Drive) Recovery mode not working.

[kasunchirantha]

Hi,

I got the above iMAC and I have a problem of accessing the Recovery mode of it.
I guess this happened after I tried to install Windows via BootCamp and then failed. (Allocated partition was recovered using bootcamp itself)
Neither of following doesn't work at the moment while booting with a Mac OS Ventura Bootable USB. (Earlier I installed Ventura using the same method)

1. Command+R
2. Command+Option+R
3. Command+Shift+Option+R
I tried resetting NVRAM/PRAM & SMC too. That too doesn't work.

Now it's on Mac OS Ventura. What ever key combination I tried it always goes to the login screen now.
I checked whether there is a keyboard issue or a bootable USB issue but both have no issues.

Also when I checked the disk by diskutil list. That too shows recovery partition is fine. (As per my understanding correct me if I am wrong) Figure attached.

I have already downloaded the Mac OS Ventura APP in to the applications. If I try to re-install it while inside the OS (without going to recovery mode), the recovery mode or recovery partition can be repaired?
Can you please suggest what I can do.

 

[Fishrrman]

Can you still boot from the Ventura bootable USB?

It looks to me that somehow you have ended up with 2 Mac volumes (where there should be only one). I could be wrong.

What I would do (and yes, I realize it's a job):
- Make sure your Mac stuff is backed up before proceeding
- If you can boot from the bootable USB, do so.
- Once booted, open disk utility.
- VERY IMPORTANT STEP -- go to the "view" menu and choose "show all devices" (I'm wondering if you did this earlier).
- Now, you have to look at the list on the left, to find the "top level" of the fusion drive (I've never touched a fusion drive Mac, so I don't know how this looks).
- Erase that to "APFS, GUID partition format"
- When done, quit disk utility and open the OS installer
- Install Ventura
- When done do setup. Have your backup connected and migrate as necessary.

 

[kasunchirantha]

Can you still boot from the Ventura bootable USB?

It looks to me that somehow you have ended up with 2 Mac volumes (where there should be only one). I could be wrong.

What I would do (and yes, I realize it's a job):
- Make sure your Mac stuff is backed up before proceeding
- If you can boot from the bootable USB, do so.
- Once booted, open disk utility.
- VERY IMPORTANT STEP -- go to the "view" menu and choose "show all devices" (I'm wondering if you did this earlier).
- Now, you have to look at the list on the left, to find the "top level" of the fusion drive (I've never touched a fusion drive Mac, so I don't know how this looks).
- Erase that to "APFS, GUID partition format"
- When done, quit disk utility and open the OS installer
- Install Ventura
- When done do setup. Have your backup connected and migrate as necessary.

Thanks a lot Mate. Actually Earlier I couldn't boot from Ventura Bootable USB either. But then as suggested on a different forum I tried going to recovery mode while the Magic Keyboard connected by cable to iMac. Surprisingly the key combinations worked then. (Earlier I tried with a windows wireless keyboard by pressing the representing keys, that didn't work either) So now everything is fine. (Actually there was no issue with the Fusion Drive; it still showed the SSD part and SATA part). My experience: Apple devices some times acts crazy