M1 bricked iMac

[Sengo]

So one of my partitions suddenly didnt show up as a bootable partition anymore. Couldn't access to the data through my second os as well.
While trying to fix this I deleted my second partition. Now my Mac doesnt boot up at all, cant get into recovery or anything. Its bricked. I have to restore it via apple configurator.

I always get The operation couldn’t be completed. (AMRestoreErrorDomain error 26 - Failed to handle message type StatusMsg (fsck failed)) [AMRestoreErrorDomain – 0x1A (26)] while trying to do it. Rarely or basically 0 informations about this problem. There is just this 1 dude who made a few questions online and solved it himself but basically saying "worked without changing anything after trying it multiple times" -> https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252918253


I dont think that anyone is able to solve this since m1 are so new&no one is experienced, but yea I am open for ideas

 

[satcomer]

I would buy a large SSD and have the hard drive put into iit, you should get a speed bump!

 

[Sengo]

I w9uld buy a large SSD and have the hard drive put into iit, you should get a speed bump!

What do you mean with "speed bump"?

 

[Fishrrman]

If you can't revive it yourself with Apple Configurator 2, my guess is that your only option is to take it to a brick 'n' mortar Apple Store genius bar and let them have a look at it.

In the future, I'd be careful about "deleting partitions"...

 

[Sengo]

If you can't revive it yourself with Apple Configurator 2, my guess is that your only option is to take it to a brick 'n' mortar Apple Store genius bar and let them have a look at it.

In the future, I'd be careful about "deleting partitions"...

I have a 2 years warranty, I have no interest in a Mac which isn't able to add and delete partitions. That's my daily business basically.

 

[satcomer]

What do you mean with "speed bump"?

It will faster boot and launching with a decent SSD \! However stick to name brands and stay away from third party sellers!

 

[chrfr]

What do you mean with "speed bump"?

You can ignore that advice– it's entirely irrelevant. The M1's built in SSD is already extremely fast.
For the restore, make sure that you're using the newest version of Configurator, and that you've really gotten the iMac into DFU mode.
Failing all that if the computer is under warranty, I'd bring it back to Apple and have them restore it. Going forward, you may want to use APFS volumes instead of partitions. They're not really the same thing but they do seem to be a bit less fragile to manage.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Based on the wear of continuously creating partitions, I would consider an external SSD.

It is fairly unusual for the average user to create/remove/change partitions more than a few times (if ever) in the life of any computer.

The fact that the storage volume is integrated into the logic board means that damaging it requires a new logic board... which may not be cost-effective compared to replacing the entire Mac once out of the warranty period.

While you are correct that it should not be a problem...if there is any risk of bricking the Mac, both the cost and the time required to get up and running again would make me want to use an external SSD if possible.

Out of curiosity, what type of work requires creating/removing partitions on regular basis?

 

[Sengo]

You can ignore that advice– it's entirely irrelevant. The M1's built in SSD is already extremely fast.
For the restore, make sure that you're using the newest version of Configurator, and that you've really gotten the iMac into DFU mode.
Failing all that if the computer is under warranty, I'd bring it back to Apple and have them restore it. Going forward, you may want to use APFS volumes instead of partitions. They're not really the same thing but they do seem to be a bit less fragile to manage.

I never used apple warranty yet, are they usually able to fix problems? I doubt that they have much more options than avg. users like us. Just asking, I guess I bring it anyway.
Something I didnt try yet is the "restore" option, instead of "revive" might do this first. I have a backup, so its np. I just dont want to lose the newest data + set it all up again.

 

[chrfr]

I never used apple warranty yet, are they usually able to fix problems? I doubt that they have much more options than avg. users like us. Just asking, I guess I bring it anyway.
Something I didnt try yet is the "restore" option, instead of "revive" might do this first. I have a backup, so its np. I just dont want to lose the newest data + set it all up again.

Restore will absolutely erase everything on the computer and will almost certainly get it working.
Yes, Apple can easily resolve this.

 

[xraydoc]

I have a 2 years warranty, I have no interest in a Mac which isn't able to add and delete partitions. That's my daily business basically.

You 100% can add and remove partitions on a Mac. But somewhere along the line you made a mistake.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Restore will save you a trip and some time...would be the first thing they would do. Pretty good walk through here, with options for a bricked machine that does not behave with a standard internet restore.

 

[Sengo]

So they will not try to "revive" it first? Because then I would try the restore myself, no need to waste their time if I can do it myself...

 

[chrfr]

So they will not try to "revive" it first? Because then I would try the restore myself, no need to waste their time if I can do it myself...

A revive in Configurator only updates the computer’s firmware and updates the recoveryOS. It won’t solve anything involving partitions. A restore wipes the disk completely and then reinstalls the OS. A restore is, by its nature, a data-destructive process.
If you’re able to do this yourself, you might as well just go ahead and do it.

Revive or restore a Mac with Apple silicon using Apple Configurator