Mac Mini doesn't see Hard Drive, need to fix/reformat it...

[gpspad]

My parents have a 2012 Mac mini w/ 8Gig of ram; it is running the latest edition of Sierra, but because they only have a DSL connection, the machine was prone to hanging up. I would have to reboot it by holding down the power button until it shut off and then turn it back on, I think the hard drive partition got screwed up.

I did install CCC and it was backing everything up every night. I am able to boot the mac off the CCC image on an external USB hard drive, but when I tried to look for the HD in the mac mini it does not show up. I can't copy the CCC image to the HD on the mac because CCC does not even see it.

the disrepair utility also does not show the drive. I have tried an internet recovery, it also does not seem to see the hard drive in the mac.

Any suggestions on how to get OSX to see the HD in the mac and fix it or reformat it....

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

It sounds like the hard drive might have failed, especially if it’s not showing up in recovery mode. I assume you’ve left it unplugged for a while to reset the SMC?

 

[chrfr]

My parents have a 2012 Mac mini w/ 8Gig of ram; it is running the latest edition of Sierra, but because they only have a DSL connection, the machine was prone to hanging up. I would have to reboot it by holding down the power button until it shut off and then turn it back on, I think the hard drive partition got screwed up.

I did install CCC and it was backing everything up every night. I am able to boot the mac off the CCC image on an external USB hard drive, but when I tried to look for the HD in the mac mini it does not show up. I can't copy the CCC image to the HD on the mac because CCC does not even see it.

the disrepair utility also does not show the drive. I have tried an internet recovery, it also does not seem to see the hard drive in the mac.

Any suggestions on how to get OSX to see the HD in the mac and fix it or reformat it....

It sounds like the disk may have failed completely. A DSL connection would not cause a computer to hang, but a disk that's failing certainly could.

 

[gpspad]

It sounds like the hard drive might have failed, especially if it’s not showing up in recovery mode. I assume you’ve left it unplugged for a while to reset the SMC?

I probably didn’t try that. Is there a way to reset the bios?

The internet recover attempted to restore the operating system, but when the select destination came up it was blank.

Thank god I had CCC so atleast they can run it off a bootable usb drive.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I probably didn’t try that. Is there a way to reset the bios?

The internet recover attempted to restore the operating system, but when the select destination came up it was blank.

Thank god I had CCC so atleast they can run it off a bootable usb drive.

I believe you just leave it unplugged for 15 seconds, plug it back in, wait 5 seconds, and then start it up.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"Thank god I had CCC so atleast they can run it off a bootable usb drive."

I have a suggestion for you.

Get an EXTERNAL USB3 SSD drive, plug it in, and set it up with a copy of the OS/apps/accounts.
It will become your PERMANENT "external booter".

And... because it's an SSD... it will run MUCH FASTER.
If you do this, the Mini will "feel like" an almost-brand-new computer.

I've been booting and running my own 2012 Mini for going on SIX YEARS this way, and it still runs like a champ today, same as when I first took it out of the box.

As mentioned above, DSL is probably NOT "the problem".
It could be a failing drive inside.

If you take the route I laid out about, you probably DON'T have to replace the internal drive. Opening the Mini can be a risky proposition, because of all the small connections inside.

If you believe the internal drive has failed, and if it "doesn't even show up" in Disk Utility, I'd just "leave it be, failed in place" and use an "external solution", as I mentioned above.

It will RUN BETTER that way.
You won't understand until you've seen the difference by trying it...!

 

[gpspad]

Thanks I have been busy and haven't had a chance to research it more.

Right now it is running off of an external USB3 drive. There is no way Im going to put a non SSD drive back in it, Ill wait for some kind of sale then replace it with a SSD drive. I may or may not put a new sSd drive inside it, I have done it before. Part of me wants to do the brain surgery the right way this time, the other part thinks its not worth the effort when I can just use a USB3 Drive

Im used to the old DOS days when you can check the drive on a deeper level. But then again with CCC and nightly backups on there computer, I never had an easier time of getting a computer back up and running for someone.

Thanks for all the help....