Mojave Installer unable to detect Hardisk.

[ajn360]

Hi guys, hope everyone is doing ok during this time of uncertainty.

Need some advise from the more experience Mac users in here. See, my MacBook pro 2012 suddenly encountered the screen of "question mark folder" yesterday during load up.

After digging for info, it was recommended to either re-install the OS or use time machine to roll back.

I guess in my scenario, reinstalling was the only option.

I used internet recovery, managed to format and partition my drive to Extended GUID. However, at the installer there were no destination drive available.

I created a Mojave Installer stick and did the same above. Boot up via USB stick, reformat and at installer, same issue occurred. No destination drive available apart from my USB stick.

I have tried with 2 different hardisks and both are having issue and am certain both hardisk are working.

Are there any other methods I can go about this? Or is there something that I'm missing? Like hardware issues?

Please help.

Thank you.

Adam

 

[Analias]

Mojave requires apfs file system. Unless you have previously installed High Sierra your boot rom likely needs updating by doing a clean high sierra install with the charger plugged in. You can install Mojave to hfs+ using dosdude1's patcher, but then you won't receive automatic updates. So install high sierra to a hfs+ partition to update the bootrom, then you can reformat to apfs and install Mojave. It's a drawn out process, but unfortunately that's how it's done.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I used internet recovery, managed to format and partition my drive to Extended GUID. However, at the installer there were no destination drive available."

Your error is that you erased the drive to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, when you should have erased it to APFS with GUID partition format.

So....

REBOOT to INTERNET recovery, open disk utility.
IMPORTANT: Go to the view menu and choose "show all devices".
Now click the top line on the left that represents the physical drive.
Erase it to APFS, GUID partition format.
Close disk utility and open the OS installer, and try again.