Mac mini - No startup disk after power outage

Question

Level 2

194 points

Mac mini - No startup disk after power outage

Hey,

I have a mac mini running macOS Sierra. Power outage + no surge protection bar = mini not starting... I was stuck at grey screen, even after multiple attempts. So I just gave up, thinking logic board is fried or something...

Then I came upon this post, suggesting resetting PRAM, and thought I would give it a try. Well, startup took a loooong time, but it did boot up, in what seems to be recovery mode.

Before doing anything else, I thought I would check the hard drive using Disk Utility. Well, there is no drive... it just keeps looking for a drive... So I opened up Startup disk to see what's up? Nothing. No drive to select.

Verdict: my HD is fried?

How do I know if it's worth changing the drive? Something else might be fried as well right?

Mac mini, macOS 10.12

Posted on Jan 4, 2020 4:24 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

guylained Author

Level 2

194 points

Jan 4, 2020 8:09 PM in response to den.thed

Right, that's my plan :-)

Just as an update, turns out I never got AHT to run (I've tried every way, even with the install disc...).

So I "just" reformatted the HD using terminal to force unmounting it first. And it worked! I'm reinstalling MacOS High Sierra right now.

We'll see how things go, and I'll probably end up changing the HD, but at least I'll know I have a working machine.

Thanks!

Reply

Answer 2

guylained Author

Level 2

194 points

Jan 4, 2020 5:38 PM in response to den.thed

Yeah sorry about that, our mac data used to automatically appear at the bottom, but I guess I haven't been here in a while....

It is a Mid-2010. So I could just try to hook up an external drive through Firewire and see if it works?

Also, I just found this out, and wonder if it could have been the issue all along... Mac mini (Mid 2010) EFI Firmware Update 1.5

Anyways, AHT is going right now, I'll try an external drive once it's done.

Thanks!

Reply

Answer 3

guylained Author

Level 2

194 points

Jan 4, 2020 5:11 PM in response to guylained

OK update:

Disk Utility was finally able to see the hard drive. Here is the message I got after running First Aid:

"First Aid process has failed. If possible back up the data on this volume."

In the Details I got this:

"Fixing damaged partition map.

The operation couldn't be completed. (com.apple.DiskManagement error -69874.)

Operation failed"

So... I'm pretty sure the hard drive has failed. Any way to ensure that nothing else is fried before I change the HD?

I'll try to run Apple Hardware Test. Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

Reply

Answer 4

den.thed

Level 10

82,540 points

Jan 4, 2020 5:33 PM in response to guylained

What year model is the Mac Mini.

Earlier Mac Mini's like the 2010 and 2011 models will startup and run from external USB 2.0 and FireWire drives. FireWire is somewhat faster the USB 2.0.

Newer models from 2012 on will startup and run from an external USB 3.0 HDD or SSD drive. Plus a USB 3.0 SSD drive will actually out perform the internal HDD.

Reply