masOS Boot Volume Disappeares After Boot Camp Resize

[Alvin777]

Hello Apple friends I was planning of backing up my Boot Camp volume so I resizzed it to become smaller with a Windows app, now, after it resized it to be smallwr even though Big Sur is still there, it wasn’t deleted, the iMac can’t find it, it won’t boot to Recovery Mode and if I boot to an external drive with Disk Utility the Macintosh Data and Macintosh are not not displayed, it even displayed as unmounted.

Is there any way to fix this using with the Terminal from the external Disk Utility? Thank you. God bless, Rev. 21:4

 

[appltech]

Hi! could perhaps post the screenshot of disk utility? how does it see your mac and bootcamp partitions now?

 

[Alvin777]

Hi! could perhaps post the screenshot of disk utility? how does it see your mac and bootcamp partitions now?

Hi, thanks for the reply. The Apple Blade does not appear in Terminal when you use Diskutil List, it only sees the 2TB hard drive it seems
and then on Disk Utility (using and external installer and external macOS bootable) it doesn’t show the Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD - Data volumes, just the the one below which is I think is the Apple
Blade 128GB.

But I have a new problem, I resized the Boot
Camp partition to 95GB, it’s overall total (everything in it)
is about 93GB. I have 2 GB empty space allowance but now the Windows 10 (64- bit, latest build) and crashes before Ineven get to login. I’m not sure if it’s because it only has 2GB empty space allowance, how much empty space allowance
does it need by the way?

Thank you. What could be the fix for this new problem?

 

[Alvin777]

Hi! could perhaps post the screenshot of disk utility? how does it see your mac and bootcamp partitions now?

 

[appltech]

Hi! thanks for the screenshot) it looks like we don't see all the devices here. could you pelase click "view -> show all devices"? this will give you a better look on all the volumes

as for other questions :
- the Apple Blade - that's your main internal drive, where the system is installed, right?
- how do you resize volumes : inside Windows part via disk management or mac part via disk utility? usually you give some space to bootcamp at the very start and that's it
- not sure about space allowance, my bootcamp is only 50 gb large as i don't use it for many things)

- i'm not sure Bootcamp lets you troubleshoot Windows properly, like a PC would via recovery or usb drives. A good way out would probably be to backup what you can from Windows part, use Bootcamp Assistant (not Disk Utility) to remove Windows partition. Next, create a new Windows partition with the amount of storage that enough for your work and restore the data
- as i understand, it's not easy to get to Windows files as you wrote before so this step will require more time
- for the mac, i'd suggest trying other shortcuts apart from usual Recovery Mode

let me know if any of the info helped)

 

[Alvin777]

Hi! thanks for the screenshot) it looks like we don't see all the devices here. could you pelase click "view -> show all devices"? this will give you a better look on all the volumes
View attachment 1830430
as for other questions :
- the Apple Blade - that's your main internal drive, where the system is installed, right?
- how do you resize volumes : inside Windows part via disk management or mac part via disk utility? usually you give some space to bootcamp at the very start and that's it
- not sure about space allowance, my bootcamp is only 50 gb large as i don't use it for many things)
View attachment 1830433
- i'm not sure Bootcamp lets you troubleshoot Windows properly, like a PC would via recovery or usb drives. A good way out would probably be to backup what you can from Windows part, use Bootcamp Assistant (not Disk Utility) to remove Windows partition. Next, create a new Windows partition with the amount of storage that enough for your work and restore the data
- as i understand, it's not easy to get to Windows files as you wrote before so this step will require more time
- for the mac, i'd suggest trying other shortcuts apart from usual Recovery Mode

let me know if any of the info helped)

Hi thanks. So true, I forgot that you resize Boot Camp partitions using the Boot Camp Assistant (how I wish I didn't make that mistake, it's been a long time since I've used that. How amazing just one simple mistake could is costing me to fix things for almost a week but God's will be done).

By the way, I don't think I can fuse the Apple Blade and hardisk again. I'll have to backup the Boot Camp volume somehow booting macOS from a USB external but whenever I get to create a Yosemite installer, at the last stage,
createmediainstall fails to make the flash drive bootable- any fix for this? This is what it looks like in Terminal:

/Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Yosemite.app --nointeraction


Erasing Disk: 0%... 10%... 20%... 30%...100%...


Copying installer files to disk...


Copy complete.


Making disk bootable...


Couldn't mount dmg /Volumes/Install OS X Yosemite/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg (error code 110)Mount of outer dmg failed.


Done.

 

[Alvin777]

Hi! thanks for the screenshot) it looks like we don't see all the devices here. could you pelase click "view -> show all devices"? this will give you a better look on all the volumes
View attachment 1830430
as for other questions :
- the Apple Blade - that's your main internal drive, where the system is installed, right?
- how do you resize volumes : inside Windows part via disk management or mac part via disk utility? usually you give some space to bootcamp at the very start and that's it
- not sure about space allowance, my bootcamp is only 50 gb large as i don't use it for many things)
View attachment 1830433
- i'm not sure Bootcamp lets you troubleshoot Windows properly, like a PC would via recovery or usb drives. A good way out would probably be to backup what you can from Windows part, use Bootcamp Assistant (not Disk Utility) to remove Windows partition. Next, create a new Windows partition with the amount of storage that enough for your work and restore the data
- as i understand, it's not easy to get to Windows files as you wrote before so this step will require more time
- for the mac, i'd suggest trying other shortcuts apart from usual Recovery Mode

let me know if any of the info helped)

Hi.

Is there another way to reset Fusion drive? I booted on a flash drive (Big Sur, I have no recovery mode on the internal drive). This message prompts. I’m sure Ihave an Apple Blade SSD in threre and a hard drive. I’m ready to erase the fusion drives, sadly but I can’t reset it. I plan to split it after, so this never happens again.

Dsik Utility looks like, I’m booted off a Big Sur Installe Flash Drive

 

[appltech]

Hi thanks. So true, I forgot that you resize Boot Camp partitions using the Boot Camp Assistant (how I wish I didn't make that mistake, it's been a long time since I've used that. How amazing just one simple mistake could is costing me to fix things for almost a week but God's will be done).

By the way, I don't think I can fuse the Apple Blade and hardisk again. I'll have to backup the Boot Camp volume somehow booting macOS from a USB external but whenever I get to create a Yosemite installer, at the last stage,
createmediainstall fails to make the flash drive bootable- any fix for this? This is what it looks like in Terminal:

Hi, sorry for a long reply)
Could you give some more info about how you create a bootable installer (via recovery or internet recovery mode) and if you managed to create it since the last message?
Are you using a flash drive or external drive o create the installer and how big are they?
I tried looking for commands on the official website but couldn't find one for Yosemite. Luckily, there are still some good step-by-step guides around that are worth checking.

 

[appltech]

Hi.

Is there another way to reset Fusion drive? I booted on a flash drive (Big Sur, I have no recovery mode on the internal drive). This message prompts. I’m sure Ihave an Apple Blade SSD in threre and a hard drive. I’m ready to erase the fusion drives, sadly but I can’t reset it. I plan to split it after, so this never happens again.

Dsik Utility looks like, I’m booted off a Big Sur Installe Flash Drive

Not sure there's a way to reconfigure the Fusion Drive without loosing the data, you'll probably have to split it and recreate it one more time and then install the OS.

 

[Alvin777]

Hi, sorry for a long reply)
Could you give some more info about how you create a bootable installer (via recovery or internet recovery mode) and if you managed to create it since the last message?
Are you using a flash drive or external drive o create the installer and how big are they?
I tried looking for commands on the official website but couldn't find one for Yosemite. Luckily, there are still some good step-by-step guides around that are worth checking.

Hi. Before things failed about 11 days ago, I installed Big Sur (backed up to Time Machine) on and external USB hardisk, it's a 160GB. I also use this to do the create install media command on a flashdrive if I have to. Though I have fresh installed Big Sur on just the hardisk since I can't fuse the SSD to the hardisk cause Disk Utility & Terminal can't see it (though Apple SSD controller sees it as "Unknown"). Hardware diagnostics reports "No Issue", I'm thinking of partitioning my internal hardisk (it's got 400GB free) to a 40GB partition (APFS), install macOS Catalina 10.15.6 there and hopefully it flashes this iMac 17,1's firmware again (even though it's the latest already) and maybe the 128 Apple Blade SSD will be identified and won't be unknown again. Problem is I can only download from Apple https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683, the 10.15.7 Catalina which might not trigger the flashing of the firmware again. What's your advise? Is there a an older, older than Catalina that could trigger another firmware update that'll flash the firmware related to the Apple Blade SSD and Fusion drive in general or 10.15.17 might just fix the Apple Blade SSD and be identified finally by macOS?

 

[appltech]

Not sure there's an official way to get back to earlier builds, apart from Time Machine backup with that builds. Are you sure 10.15.7 will not flash the firmware? Usually i'd think the latest version has everything that was prior to 10.15.7

 

[Alvin777]

Hi. I will try 10.15.7 but everytime I download it, either via Terminal or via App Store then System Preferences it says "Installation Failed":

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...n-failed.2312510/?post=30318076#post-30318076

 

[Alvin777]

It wasn't meant to be. Even booted off Catalna 10.15.6, there's no way to flash the firmware againl, it just offers you to install macOS Big Sur. I'll clear out the workspace too, finish other projects, arrange the workspace before I open the iMac then change the SSD, so there's no clutter (full focus).

I guess I'll do SSD upgrade with a 1TB NVMW using an adapter to fit the connector but before that when I get to take out the Apple Blade SSD, I'll pass a blowtorch for a millisecond (Kapton tape on the surroundings) on the flash chips at about 800C. Korean research says, it can revive stuff.

Pray, fast and hope. Thank you. Have a blessed weekend. It's not meant to be fixed (probably overheated or it's out of write capacity). I'll try Spinrite too before I do the blowtorch stuff (taking out the hardisk to isolate it). I'll attach an external monitor.

 

[appltech]

If only there better news on this one) By the way, maybe you have a donor mac to connect the Blade SSD to (if it's possible)? This way you'd know if it actually works or the problem is somewhere within a certain mac.