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Unrecognized Internal SSD on TouchBar MBP

S

sockdoggy

macrumors regular
Original poster
I have a 2017 13” MacBook Pro TB with an SSD that doesn’t appear in disk utility, terminal disk list, or target disk mode. Typical question mark folder at startup.

It happened after the drive was wiped in disk utility (from a Mojave USB). The short of the long: reformatted to AFPS, ran OS X installer which didn’t recognize the drive, reformatted again AFPS and the process was interrupted from the MBP restarting itself randomly.

I came across an article that Apple has a device that circumvents the logic board and plugs directly into the SSD. Anyone have experience with this? Last hope is convincing the Genius bar to let me do a data recovery with this device and attempt to format the disk. Repair for a new logic board is $475 I believe.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
 
Remove the ssd, place it in an enclosure, connect it to another Mac computer, format it, place it back in your computer, install the os.
 
That's correct, the flash storage (SSD) is soldered in place.
Apple has no choice but to replace the logic board.
If you have attempted to format/erase the drive, I suspect there is now nothing to recover, and that will be a waste of your time (and money). And, you said that you tried it more than once. That likely seals the deal (no recovery, other than your backup - and I hope you DID have a backup of your important files. They will be gone - unless you have another form of backup, such as iCloud.
 
Not sure if this may be related, but worth a try. When I've put a NVMe drive in 2017 MBA it wasn't recognized in Mojave, but was in High Sierra. Once formatted in High Sierra I could see it in Mojave. It was kind of weird, didn't give much thought but I assumed it needs the original OS which was shipped with it to set the recovery partition.
 
Thysanoptera said:
Not sure if this may be related, but worth a try. When I've put a NVMe drive in 2017 MBA it wasn't recognized in Mojave, but was in High Sierra. Once formatted in High Sierra I could see it in Mojave. It was kind of weird, didn't give much thought but I assumed it needs the original OS which was shipped with it to set the recovery partition.
Click to expand...

I tried a full internet recovery that loaded High Sierra and still the same result unfortunately.

Re using their SSD recovery tool, I’m interested if connecting straight to the SSD makes a difference vs going through the logic board. Maybe going to an authorized shop outside of an Apple store would be more flexible with this approach.

https://www.macrumors.com/2016/11/25/apple-ssd-data-recovery-macbook-pro/
 
I was loading it from HS USB stick. I guess you tried the usual PRAM and SMC resets? I read your original posts again, I missed the part where it was not recognized in installer after being successfully formatted in Disk Utility. That crash during subsequent format also looks pretty bad, that's most likely a hardware issue. The procedure with the recovery tool is to copy the data from ssd on dead motherboard, if you have a hardware failure this won't help.
 
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PROFESS0R said:
Ugh. I am coming from a 2007 MBP and completely forgot about the soldered SSD. SHEESH. What an idiot. And this idiocy occurs even after i ordered a 4Tb SSD because I knew the SSD was soldered.
Click to expand...

Well your first reply is what I’ve done in the past and has always worked! OS X is so sensitive to not seeing drives it doesn’t like.
[doublepost=1544358896][/doublepost]
Thysanoptera said:
I was loading it from HS USB stick. I guess you tried the usual PRAM and SMC resets? I read your original posts again, I missed the part where it was not recognized in installer after being successfully formatted in Disk Utility. That crash during subsequent format also looks pretty bad, that's most likely a hardware issue. The procedure with the recovery tool is to copy the data from ssd on dead motherboard, if you have a hardware failure this won't help.
Click to expand...
HS on USB is definitely worth a shot! Kind of agree in general with each subsequent release of OS X disk utility has gotten dumber. Although I would think diskutil effectiveness in Terminal hasn’t changed.

I installed HS on a USB stick so I can boot the machine. Will try PRAM and SMC resets again as previously don’t think the commands worked when there was no system to boot.

It could entirely be a hardware failure. Because AFPS is still new and I’ve had similar experiences in the past where volume wasn’t recognized after an AFPS reformat, part of me thinks it could be the issue.

I was planning on getting AppleCare extended on the MBP btw. Went in for a checkup on the last day of original coverage for a check up and was looking to add extended coverage given solder city. Apparently now it must be purchased within 30 days of original purchase. Have had so many machines where I’ve done it otherwise.
 
OP:

Are you up-and-running again?
Or... still "down"?

Can you boot to internet recovery?
That is, restart and hold down "command-option-R" and keep holding down until the internet symbol appears.
You may need to enter your wifi password.

If you can get to internet recovery, I suggest you open Disk Utility and erase the internal drive to "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled".

THEN open the OS installer and try a software re-install.

If that doesn't work, I suggest you take the MBP to a brick-n-mortar Apple Store genius bar and see if they can help. DON'T take it to a "3rd party service" place.
 
Fishrrman said:
OP:

Are you up-and-running again?
Or... still "down"?

Can you boot to internet recovery?
That is, restart and hold down "command-option-R" and keep holding down until the internet symbol appears.
You may need to enter your wifi password.

If you can get to internet recovery, I suggest you open Disk Utility and erase the internal drive to "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled".

THEN open the OS installer and try a software re-install.

If that doesn't work, I suggest you take the MBP to a brick-n-mortar Apple Store genius bar and see if they can help. DON'T take it to a "3rd party service" place.
Click to expand...
The internal drive doesn’t appear in disk utility!
 
OP wrote:
"The internal drive doesn’t appear in disk utility!"

Just wondering -- can you open Disk Utility, go to the upper-left-hand corner, and choose "show all devices" from the popup menu?
Does that change anything?

What I would suggest you try next:
1. You'll need either an external USB drive, or a USB flashdrive 32gb or greater
2. Boot to internet recovery (command-option-R)
3. When you get to the utilities menu, open Disk Utility
4. Connect the USB drive or flashdrive
5. Erase it to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled
6. Close DU and open the OS installer
7. Aim the installer at the drive (or flashdrive), and see if you can install a clean copy of the OS onto the EXTERNAL drive.
8. If the install is successful, you should be presented with the setup screen.
9. Go ahead and set up the EXTERNAL drive with a basic account. You want to be able to get to the finder.
10. Can you get this far? It's important to try this, because a Mac that isn't "bootable to the finder" ain't gonna let you do to much, otherwise.
 
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