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Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,073
15,496
California
Yes I can boot in recovery
Put in my wifi and went through to disk Utility/install/recovery


MacBook Air 2012 I believe
Okay... so you saw the spinning grey globe before it got to the recovery screen? That way you know for sure you are in Internet recovery.

Now open disk utility and select Sow all devices like in my screenshot. Then select the drive itself at the very top as shown in my image. Now click erase then select macOS Extended Journaled and erase the drive. Then quit Disk Util and reinstall the OS.

Screen Shot 2019-08-22 at 10.11.35 AM.png
 

SadieXayle

macrumors newbie
Sep 25, 2019
3
0
I know this is an old thread but I happen to also have a similar issue with the OP and the many other people in this thread. I have typed in the many codes posted by WeaselBoy but none worked for me, I kept on getting errors all night.

I have a MacBook air from 2012-2015 and this isn't the first time this issue has happened with my laptop. I have brought it to a apple store hours away from my town (literally the nearest apple store) once before and they fixed it for me and the other time I fixed it myself and don't remember how.

I could really use help and would appreciate any help?
 

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SadieXayle

macrumors newbie
Sep 25, 2019
3
0
I can't even see the internal drive there (not good). Can you explain what happened leading up to this?
It froze while i was using it so I had to shut it off by holding down the power button. When i turned it back on, the flashing folder appeared.
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,073
15,496
California
It froze while i was using it so I had to shut it off by holding down the power button. When i turned it back on, the flashing folder appeared.
If you are in command-option-r boot Internet recovery and cannot even see the drive in Disk Utility like that, and based on what your described, I think you have a failed drive.
 
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SadieXayle

macrumors newbie
Sep 25, 2019
3
0
If you are in command-option-r boot Internet recovery and cannot even see the drive in Disk Utility like that, and based on what your described, I think you have a failed drive.
Apparently, my mac turned on normal like nothing happened few minutes before i left for the apple store. And for more than four days it was showing flashing folder but nothing? now it wants to turn on normal
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,073
15,496
California
Apparently, my mac turned on normal like nothing happened few minutes before i left for the apple store. And for more than four days it was showing flashing folder but nothing? now it wants to turn on normal
You drives are pretty cheap... you might just replace the drive just to be on the safe side (if you have the budget).
 

SassySort

macrumors newbie
Nov 11, 2019
1
1
HaraldB!! I'm New to this type of forum so not sure if I'm replying correctly. But I am on an older iMac (2014) and was attempting to upgrade to Catalina with a factory reset (wiping the hard drive ) and I ran into the whole issue of the Macintosh HD dissapering and o ly showing the fusion drive and bootcamp. Knowing something might happen since it is an 'older' model (I love saying a freakishly expensive computer that is only 5 years old is vintage but whatever...it's Apple) but your code in terminal fixed it! Thankyou sooo much for helping people when they need it. I know this is an old thread but wanted to say thank you!
 

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LeahG

macrumors newbie
Aug 23, 2020
8
2
Weaselboy - can you please help me - I have followed all of your instructions but they are not working. I have a MacBook Pro 10.1 Mid2012 - I tried to update OS software and the system crashed on restart - gives me the screen with a flashing file folder. Have spend hours on the phone with Apple Support. Only online help I have found that is good is this forum and this chain of commands from you but they are not working. I have an appointment with an Apple store in a week from now but it is over 90 miles away. I was hoping you can help.

There is no ”Macintosh HD” to delete
When I try to create the LVG I get the following message

PLEASE Help!
 

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Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,073
15,496
California
You don't have a Fusion drive, so those commands don't apply to you.

Try holding command-option-r (all three at once) when booting. Select your wifi, then you should see a spinning globe while the recovery tool downloads. Once that comes up, in the Utilities menu up top select Terminal. Then run the command below and tell me the output.

Code:
diskutil list
 
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LeahG

macrumors newbie
Aug 23, 2020
8
2
THANK YOU - THANK YOU THANK YOU

Here is the screen shot
 

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Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,073
15,496
California
I'm a little worried because it shows your main drive disk0 there have being only 1.2 GB.

Quit Terminal and start Disk Utility while still in recovery. Can you see the internal disk from there?
 

LeahG

macrumors newbie
Aug 23, 2020
8
2
I'm a little worried because it shows your main drive disk0 there have being only 1.2 GB.

Quit Terminal and start Disk Utility while still in recovery. Can you see the internal disk from there?
 

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LeahG

macrumors newbie
Aug 23, 2020
8
2
I think I messed up in playing around with you commands and partitioned the disks with disk 12 - it now has the 2GB - I meant 2TB - see the previous - diskutil list disk 12
 

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Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,073
15,496
California
What you are seeing there in Disk Utility is the temporary recovery image that was downloaded as part of Internet recovery. I don't see a hard drive there at all, so I'm thinking your drive is dead.
 

LeahG

macrumors newbie
Aug 23, 2020
8
2
When I open the macOS Base Systems - this is what is on it - would there be any useable files in here to try to use to reboot?
All I did was a OS update - are you saying that could have causes the hard drive to fail?
 

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Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,073
15,496
California
What you are seeing there is a virtual image of the recovery utility you downloaded, and there is nothing there of value to you.

What happens sometimes is you have an older drive that may be getting close to failure, then all the stress of installing an OS upgrade finally pushes it over the edge and kills it. Pretty common.
 

LeahG

macrumors newbie
Aug 23, 2020
8
2
Oh - darn - so is it worth buying a new hard drive? - and THANK YOU for your help!!!!
 

Savageapple

macrumors newbie
Aug 26, 2020
4
0
Hi I know this is an old thread but I’m facing the same problem as others here. So apparently when i restart i have a weird file with a qn mark. When i go into internet recovery (i cant login to my wifi somehow so im using ethernet) i dont see my macintosh hd drive on diskutility. The terminal codes meanwhile merely churn out random errors.
Also if i remember correctly the last time i checked my macbook on a regular day i only had 3GB storage. @Weaselboy could you help me? My com was getting stuck recently so i power killed it, the previous day i also used disk drill(App) to find a folder i deleted, might have damaged the hard drive while doing so
 

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Savageapple

macrumors newbie
Aug 26, 2020
4
0
Hi I know this is an old thread but I’m facing the same problem as others here. So apparently when i restart i have a weird file with a qn mark. When i go into internet recovery (i cant login to my wifi somehow so im using ethernet) i dont see my macintosh hd drive on diskutility. The terminal codes meanwhile merely churn out random errors.
Also if i remember correctly the last time i checked my macbook on a regular day i only had 3GB storage. @Weaselboy could you help me? My com was getting stuck recently so i power killed it, the previous day i also used disk drill(App) to find a folder i deleted, might have damaged the hard drive while doing so
Alright alright so what i did was shut down my com, did a pram reset and then pressed command and option at the same time,
AND IT BOOTED!!!!
Wonder what happened lmao
 
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