Need Help Restoring from Time Machine on a Failed FileVault disk

[kepardue]

The title may be a bit confusing. Here's my situation.

I got a refurb rMBP two weeks ago. During the initial setup, it asked if I wanted to enable FileVault. I did, and let it go about it's merry way.

Today, I noticed that FileVault was using significant battery power. When I checked the preferences, I noticed that it still hadn't completed the initial backup, and said that it would continue when the unit was plugged in.

The system has been plugged in for almost a solid week. FileVault seems to have failed. I tried resetting the PRAM and SMC. No dice. Finally, I decided to restore from my Time Machine backup.

During the procedure, I chose my backup, asked it to unlock the FileVault protected disk, and entered my password. The installer screeched to a halt and said there was a problem with the encrypted disk, to restart, and attempt the backup again.

Now, my Macintosh HD has NO partitions on it, and I can't create one with Disk Utility. All partition options related to the main SSD are grayed out. I cannot select the disk as a destination. And, ultimately, I'm starting to panic a bit.

What should I do to restore my system's SSD hard drive to something that I can restore to?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Boot into recovery mode (Command +R). Go to disk utility and erase the disk and then format it properly with GUID and one partition. Exit disk utility and proceed to install OS X via internet recovery, unless you have a USB installer.

 

[kepardue]

Boot into recovery mode (Command +R). Go to disk utility and erase the disk and then format it properly with GUID and one partition. Exit disk utility and proceed to install OS X via internet recovery, unless you have a USB installer.

That's the problem. When I boot into the recovery console I don't have the option to Erase the disk, or create any new partitions. All options are grayed out, and the Erase tab doesn't even appear. The recovery partition appears to be in tact, but other than that, nothing on disk0 won't allow me to do anything, except Verify and Repair the disk (both of which report that the disk is OK).

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This is what I see for /dev/disk0

#:                    TYPE   NAME                SIZE         IDENTIFIER
0:   GUID_partition_scheme                      *500.3 GB     disk0
1:                     EFI   EFI                 209.7MB      disk0s1
2:       Apple_CoreStorage                       49.4GB       disk0s2
3:              Apple_Boot   Recovery HD         650.0MB      disk0s3

 

[blevins321]

To set the drive back to zero, follow these steps. Note this is for Fusion drives, but the process is the same. Be booted to recovery mode and open terminal.

http://www.macworld.com/article/2015664/how-to-split-up-a-fusion-drive.html

Basically, that Corestorage partition that you see is the Fikevault.

 

[kepardue]

To set the drive back to zero, follow these steps. Note this is for Fusion drives, but the process is the same. Be booted to recovery mode and open terminal.

http://www.macworld.com/article/2015664/how-to-split-up-a-fusion-drive.html

Basically, that Corestorage partition that you see is the Fikevault.

You, sir or madam, have in 30 seconds been impressively more helpful than the 45 minutes I just spent on the phone with AppleCare. I was able to destroy the Core Storage partition and set up a standard partition with ease. I'm restoring from my Time Machine backup now.