Need some advice on fixing this mess.

[sukai]

I need some major help in setting my iMac up and running again. I have come to the point that I realized I have no idea what am doing and have only made things worse.

To get to the point - Trying to install ML,(or mavericks which i have on a usb flash drive) from scratch, like it was new, resetting everything.


what happened: ill try to make it short
I apologize for the lack of evidence on everything i have done until writing this, I did not think it would turn this nasty.
- installed mavericks on my 27" iMac, became slow/beachballs/freezing

- created an install disk of mavericks to perform a clean install.

- booted into it, formatted macintosh HD drive

- installed mavericks, partially, after the initial install it gave me an error( can't recall) something about can't install on it.(i believe it was this, "install Failed: OS X could not be installed on your computer. OS X can't be installed on the disk because a recovery system can't be created.")
-downhill from here-

- Runs terminal to delete the Recovery drive, following some directions online.
-tried to merge the now deleted recovery drive partition, now called untitled, failed.

-Disk Utility, erased, verified, repaired HD. Showed everything was fine.
-Tried to install ML/Mavericks, "You Cannot Install OS X on This Disk. OS X cannot start up from this disk")
-Back in Disk Utility, clicked erase HD again, Estimate: 2minutes, ended on the same spot 5+ hours later, clicked skipped.
-Macintosh HD became unusable, showed as faded.
-Back to terminal following directions.
-ran, diskutil cs list
-ran, diskutil cs delete UUID(individual, failed)
-ran, diskutil cs delete UUID(group, worked until the last bit)
-got a null error, and error: -69832: file system formatter failed
-ran, diskutil cs list - get: No CoreStorage logical volume groups found.

This is where I am at now, I apologize for not having proper pictures/scripts of everything i was doing, did not think it would turn this bad.

As of right now, this is how it looks:
diskutil list:
-bash-3.2# diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_partition_scheme *1.2 GB disk0
1: Apple_partition_map 30.7 KB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Mac OS X Base System 1.2 GB disk0s2
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *524.3 KB disk1
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *524.3 KB disk2
/dev/disk3
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *524.3 KB disk3
/dev/disk4
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *524.3 KB disk4
/dev/disk5
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *524.3 KB disk5
/dev/disk6
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *6.3 MB disk6
/dev/disk7
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *2.1 MB disk7
/dev/disk8
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *1.0 MB disk8
/dev/disk9
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *524.3 KB disk9
/dev/disk10
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *524.3 KB disk10
/dev/disk11
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: untitled *1.0 MB disk11
/dev/disk12
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk12
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk12s1
2: Apple_HFS Untitled 121.0 GB disk12s2
/dev/disk13
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: NO NAME *2.0 GB disk13


-bash-3.2# diskutil cs list
No CoreStorage logical volume groups found
-bash-3.2#

I saved files that i cared about to an external hard drive (not through time machine, which i probably should for the future.) I didn't mind deleting everything, just wanted it to have a nice fresh install of ML or Mavericks at this point.



Again sorry for this whole mess and not properly presenting it to you all.

I can't seem to find an "about this mac" options currently for more details
Its a 27" iMac Ordered on November 30, 2012 (slim one) 3tb fusion drive.
Any help is really appreciated.

 

[macthefork]

It looks like your Fusion Drive separated during one of your operations into the two separate drives. I believe there is a setting in Disk Utility that lets you recreate the Fusion core storage logical volume from the SSD and the spinning hard drive. (I don't have a Fusion drive on my Mac so I can't check the exact settings on mine)

You should be able to set this up by booting to your USB installer and before trying to install, use Disk Utility to repair and reformat into the Core Storage Logical volume.

As an alternative, you can recover your Mac and reset the Fusion Drive to a logical volume through internet recovery by booting while holding the Command and R keys on your keyboard during the boot process. This could take a while if it has to download from the Apple servers.

Then open Disk Utility and go from there.

 

[Thrifty1]

I did something similar about a week ago with my new iMac with a 3Tb Fusion drive (it was one day old). Tried some of the Terminal disk utility commands I found on forums but then it got more messed up. When I went into Disk Utility what had shown up as my one hard drive was now 4 separate drives. What a mess!!! It all started when I tried to set up a boot camp partition and that failed.

I was under warranty and spent 3-4 hours on the phone with Apple Care - had me doing all sorts of things that never worked to get me back to one combined partition for my Fusion drive. The problem was disk utility never would let me erase the drive and re-partition it as one drive. Those options were greyed out no matter what they had me do. All the commands they had me do in Terminal also failed. They finally said to bring it to the Apple store (only 15 minutes from me).

The Genius Bar guy was truly a genius. He spent about 10 minutes doing something and it was back to the original drive setup like when I got the iMac.

I wish I knew what he did, but I don't. If you are under Apple Care, take it to the Apple store if possible and have them restore the drive to the original settings.

 

[DeltaMac]

You should be able to create your fusion drive again by booting to internet recovery (Command-Option-R)
More info here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5446

 

[Thrifty1]

You should be able to create your fusion drive again by booting to internet recovery (Command-Option-R)
More info here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5446

Yes, that is what we had to do to fix the drive... get it to a state where it showed as RED in Disk Utility. The genius bar rep had to do some disk utility commands in Terminal first before it would show up in Red. I wish I could recall / help you with the commands he used to do this.

If you can figure out how to get your hard drive showing up in RED in Disk Utility (via internet recovery mode) you should be able to fix it from there.

 

[sukai]

thanks everyone, I just got home, so i'll be trying to do this tomorrow in the morning, I appreciate it a lot!