Partition Map Check Failed 13" MacBook Pro 2012 or 2013

[macattack101]

After the battery ran out the other day, my old MacBook with a Samsung SSD 850 EVO hard drive would not start up when the battery was recharged and the computer plugged in. Instead there was only the folder with the flashing question mark showing up. Once the circle with the lines through it showed up as well.

As suggested in the Support Forum, I booted in internet recovery mode and used Disk Utility.

Disk Utility lists:

250.06 GB Samsung SSD
disk0s1
disk1
OS X Base System

When you Verify Disk or Repair Disk for the Samsung SSD it says "Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting. Error: Partition map check failed because no slices were found."

When you Verify Disk for the Os X Base System it say "The volume appears to be OK"

In Recovery Mode there is an option to choose the Start-Up Drive but no options appear.

I have attached the malfunctioning MacBook Pro to an even older 2009 15" MacBook Pro running 10.11.6 via FireWire cables to use Target Disk Mode. Disk Utility sees a AAPL FireWire Target Media but the drive does not show up on the desktop. Disk Utility will not scan the Target Mode Drive and S.M.A.R.T. status is "Not Supported".

Anything that I can do to get this drive working long enough to copy files off of it?

 

[Fishrrman]

Before going any further:

This is a 2012-design non-retina MacBook Pro, right (even if you bought it in 2013, it's still the 2012 design)?

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
The 2012 design MBP's have an internal drive ribbon cable that is a source of trouble.
To wit, the cable "wears", and as it does, good communication is lost between the drive and the motherboard.
To the user, it looks as if the drive is dead, slow, or malfunctioning.
But it's not the drive -- it's THE CABLE.

This part is cheap, and easy enough to change out, particularly if you changed out the drive yourself at some point.

Go to ifixit.com to see what's involved.
You can also get the cable part number there.
You can order the cable from them, or from online.

I'm thinking this could be your problem.

HAVING SAID THAT...
One way to further confirm that "it's the cable" is to:
- open the back
- take the drive OUT
- put it into an enclosure or a USB3/SATA dock
- connect it to another Mac (or even the MBP) and see if it mounts that way.
If the drive now suddenly begins to "behave" again, then it's likely that the cable was the culprit.

 

[macattack101]

Thank you so much for your answer!

It looks like this is a 2010 MacBook Pro (model A1278).

I took the disk drive out of the computer and put it into an external SATA dock. The computer would not boot from it when started up pressing "option". It did boot up in Internet Recovery Mode.

Using the external dock and Recovery Mode, Disc Utility only sees:

disk0
OS X Base System

When Verify Disk is chosen for OS X Base System it says "The volume appears to be OK."

I am guessing this is not a good thing.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Fishrrman]

Do you have another Mac to which you can connect the drive in the dock?
Try this if possible.
If disk utility can't "see it", well, that's not a good sign.

I've had SSDs that just "went dark", never to be seen again.
Connect them to the computer, and ... nothing.

Not like platter-based drives, that may give some symptoms of failure before they "fail for good".

An SSD can just... vanish... POOF !