Q: Deleted startup disk partition and now I cannot boot
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Feb 2, 2016 12:43 PMby JimmyCMPIT,not knowing what those instructions your say you tried are because you don't state them I can suggest the following:
Do you have a time machine backup? Restore from that.
Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support
if not you can try Recovery or Internet Recovery if your model Air supports it.
Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery - Apple Support
OS X: About OS X Recovery - Apple Support
however if it is the 2010 model you may need to run this patch for the internet recovery if the local is not available.
MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.3
otherwise you will need the original media your computer came with if it came with any.
If none of those are available to you you could try to connect your mac to another mac computer in target mode and install the OS from the other system
Share files between two computers with target disk mode - Apple Support
otherwise you may wish to contact the nearest Apple Store and set up an appointment.
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Feb 2, 2016 12:42 PMby nimchip,it has internet recovery... i'm able to go into it. However I tried following this link:
How to fix Flashing Folder with Question Mark on Mac
and this:
If a flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac - Apple Support
nothing works. My 120gb ssd appears encrypted (greyed out), so I tried this:
and it doesn't do anything at all...
I don't have a time machine backup.
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Feb 2, 2016 12:49 PMby JimmyCMPIT,your able to go to IR what happens? If you post someone else post there are pages of posts that may not be relative to your dilemma and it's not the best time spent trying to guess what may or may not apply to your situation.
Please describe what's happening with your computer in your own words or use a smartphone or camera to take a screen shot if you can not explain.have you tried to unlock the drive in Disk Utility from the recovery tools
- Boot your Mac and hold down ⌘-R (Command –R) to boot from the Recovery HD partition.
- Open Disk Utility.
- Select your locked hard drive.
- Under the File menu, select Unlock “Drive Name”
- When prompted for a password, enter the password of the authorized account on the drive.
- Once you unlock the disk, hold down the Option key on your keyboard and click on the File menu.
- Under the File menu, select Turn Off Encryption… with the Option key held down, it is no longer grayed-out.
- When prompted for a password, enter the password of the authorized account on the drive.
- Disk Utility should display a progress window labeled Starting conversion to JHFS+
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Feb 2, 2016 1:04 PMby nimchip,If I go into internet recovery and click the apple icon and select startup disk, it asks to select the system you want to use. I click the only one called Macintosh HD Encrypted Disk. Clicking restart I get an alert that the disk is encrypted, as it says on its name. I select restart and it doesn't boot.
After that I tried to unlock the disk and disable encryption on it by by clicking the encrypted mac hd, and selecting unlock disk from the file menu, which worked. After that by using the Option key I clicked Turn Off Encryption under the File menu and I got a progress window that quickly disappeared but it didn't turn off encryption at all. Tried restarting again, no boot.
Finally, I went into internet recovery again and this time it says the Mac HD is not mounted. So I click mount but nothing happens. It says Mount Pount: Not Mounted, and Format : Locked Logical Partition.
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Feb 2, 2016 1:19 PMby JimmyCMPIT,Disconnect any an all external devices with the exception of mouse and keyboard, boot into Recovery mode.
once the encryption process is started go back to disk utility and format the drive, and if that completes then quit of of disk utility, not reboot
if that does not work open the terminal from the menu
type
diskutil corestorage list
a long list of items will appear on the screen, look for the entry labeled "Logical Volume" and make not of the hex number beside it, this string of numbers will be called UUIDd where I say UUID type that number
type
diskutil corestorage unlockVolume UUID -stdinpassphrase
you will be prompted to add the administrative password, only the password
if this is correct the drive will mount.
otherwise its' possible the decryption will take a long time, hours or more.
to track the completion from terminal type
diskutil corestorage list
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Feb 2, 2016 4:02 PMby nimchip,Well, it's been a couple of hours... and 0 progress. It's only a 120gb hd, I don't think it should take this long. I read a couple of other posts and questions and it seems I am screwed. Maybe I should just backup to an external HDD or something but seeing as it's stuck still in encrypted mode would that still be a good idea if I want to recover the partition or the files?
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Feb 3, 2016 5:49 AMby JimmyCMPIT,backup whatever you can, goes without saying.
The de-encryption process should not make your drive unusable but it may tax your CPU while it's running, Mine said 3 days but it as a 500MB SATA mechanical drive and it did not take 3 days.
You should see an Encryption Status of "converting" and not a percent value, but it may have changed over time.
Apples going to suggest you take to an Apple Store, I'm not sure what it will cost you but a new 128GB SSD is less than $70 if you start pulling your hair out.
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Feb 3, 2016 6:47 AMby JimmyCMPIT,if you have an up-to-date backup then yes, delete that drive if you can and restore from backup. at this point you have nothing to loose.
Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support
