HELP! I'm stuck after failed attempt at clean install of MacOS Catalina

[m021478]

Over the years I've installed so much crapware on my computer that it just felt sluggish and contaminated to me, and I finally got up the nerve to do a clean install to start over again more 'minimalistically'.

I've done clean installs many times in the past, but never on MacOS Catalina. After backing up my Mac, I restarted into Repair Mode (Cmd+R on startup), then I went into Disk Utility to erase/partition/reformat the primary internal hard drive. I was puzzled when I noticed my primary HD (Macintosh HD) seemed was one partition of a dual partition config, and there was also another partition labeled "Data".

I turned to YouTube for advise. I watched this video, following the steps that he outlines about 2 minutes into the video in which he suggests selecting the primary HD partition and hitting the minus sign in the tool bar to "Delete APFS Volume Macintosh HD". So I did that, and in the following popup confirmation dialog, I honestly can't remember if I chose '"Delete the Volume Group..", or just the "Delete" option.

Whichever option I chose, I really messed up my system and I now find myself completely dead in the water. Here's what happened next:

After this it wouldn't let me Partition or Erase drive without producing an error message and preventing the action. I attempted to leave Disk Utility and just go try and reinstall the OS in hopes that it would know what to do to the drive to make it operable, but this is the message I got :

So at this point I'M COMPLETELY STUCK and I could really use some help from you guys to help me get back up and running. Any suggestions? Thanks so much!

 

[DeltaMac]

Here's what you should do now:
Go back into the Disk Utility.
Click the View icon, so you get the dropdown menu. Choose "Show all Devices. You will then see the drive, and the partitions. Those are no longer valid, so click on the device name (should be the topmost item in the list, and shows manufacturer's model number), then click the erase icon.
AND -- click the Erase button. that will remove all partitions. It will take a few seconds for that to complete.
Then, Quit Disk Utility, which will return you to the menu screen, where you can choose Reinstall macOS. The install process will make the partitions that it needs for installing the system.
Now, it's just waiting for the install to finish. Then you can setup a fresh new install, or restore from your backup, whatever your choice is at that point.

 

[chscag]

When Catalina is installed it creates a "container disk1" and within that container disk1 it further creates two volumes, Macintosh HD which has all the system files and is read only, and Macintosh HD - Data which has your user info, apps, and data, all of which you have access to both read and write.

The instructions from the YouTube video should have worked. Obviously something didn't work out right.

What kind of backup did you make? Time Machine? Clone?

 

[m021478]

I have a time Machine backup. But I'd rather not use it if at all possible. All of my data is either in Dropbox or in iCloud, so that will all be re-downloaded as soon as I am back up and running.

Shortly after this all happened a few hours ago, I had to leave the house to take care of something, so I shut down my computer figuring I'd deal with it when I got back. Now every time I switch on the computer, after a couple seconds I immediately get a kernel panic. I have't tried holding down Option, or Cmd+R, or any other startup key combination. Nor have I attempted to boot into target disk mode and connect the computer to my Laptop.

First things first... how now do I get around this stupid kernel panic that pops up almost immediately after booting up? Then, what should I try next?

 

[m021478]

Okay, so I was able to boot up holding Cmd+R to bring me into Repair Mode. From here I am able to see a list of my recent Time Machine Backups:

Then it asks where I'd like to restore the backup to:

So should I choose to restore it to Macintosh HD, or to Data?

 

[TallGuyGT]

Have you tried Command-Option-R for internet restore?

If you have everything in cloud backup, I'd completely wipe the disk. In disk utility, in the upper left corner is a dropdown menu "View". Select "Show All Devices" and then you can erase the top level volume. Then you can reinstall the OS from the internet.

 

[m021478]

Have you tried Command-Option-R for internet restore?

If you have everything in cloud backup, I'd completely wipe the disk. In disk utility, in the upper left corner is a dropdown menu "View". Select "Show All Devices" and then you can erase the top level volume. Then you can reinstall the OS from the internet.

I actually never knew about Command-Option-R for internet restore. Great tip! Thanks for that!

So the in the screenshot below below, you're suggesting I erase the volume named "APPLE SSD SM1024"?

 

[chscag]

So the in the screenshot below below, you're suggesting I erase the volume named "APPLE SSD SM1024"?

Yes, that's also what @DeltaMac told you what to do in the dupe thread you posted.

 

[m021478]

Yes, that's also what @DeltaMac told you what to do in the dupe thread you posted.

Dang! My bad bro. When I initially posted this thread, I hit 'Post' after writing my long-winded explanation of my issue and the browser just hung there for ages. I thought I was going to lose everything I'd written so I copied it to the clipboard, restarted my Chrome browser and pasted it all into a new post. Seems that the first post did actually go through after all. My bad.
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Dang!!! I thought it would work this time around. Instead, when I followed everyone's instructions above and hit 'Erase' on the "APPLE SSD SM1024" volume, this is what I got:

Thoughts?
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Dang! My bad bro. When I initially posted this thread, I hit 'Post' after writing my long-winded explanation of my issue and the browser just hung there for ages. I thought I was going to lose everything I'd written so I copied it to the clipboard, restarted my Chrome browser and pasted it all into a new post. Seems that the first post did actually go through after all. My bad.
[automerge]1587015698[/automerge]
Dang!!! I thought it would work this time around. Instead, when I followed everyone's instructions above and hit 'Erase' on the "APPLE SSD SM1024" volume, this is what I got:

Thoughts?

Once I hit the 'Done' button and returned to the main Disk Utility window I noticed that the partition 'Data' had been unmounted, but that the 'Macintosh HD' partition wasn't. I tried manually unmounting it and it gave me the following message:

Not sure if this is relevant whatsoever, but it would seem that it can't erase the partition because disk utility is possibly being run from it. Could be wrong about this though. I figured it was worth sharing just in case.

Let me know what you guys think I should try next. Thanks!!!

 

[m021478]

OK, well, I simply ran first aid on the Macintosh HD partition and then tried again and it worked this time around!

I don’t expect to have any issues moving forward with the MacOS reinstallation, so it looks like I’m out of the woods. I’ll let you guys know if there are any more hiccups along the way.

Thank you all for your help!

 

[TallGuyGT]

I actually never knew about Command-Option-R for internet restore. Great tip! Thanks for that!

So the in the screenshot below below, you're suggesting I erase the volume named "APPLE SSD SM1024"?

View attachment 906293

Don’t know if it’s too late, but yes, erase at the top level “Apple SSD” and then reinstall from there. Good luck!