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Macintosh HD and reinstallation

Hello, is there a way to reinstall the operating system on an iMAC when "Macintosh HD" in Disk Utilities is no longer appearing?

This has happened to me twice now. The other time it was on my MacBook and an AppleCare agent walked me through the steps to do a reinstallation, and unfortunately, those steps led to the disappearance of "Macintosh HD" and the computer was unable to reinstall anything. Now the same thing is a happening with my iMAC, following the instructions again, and the same thing has happened. This can't be a coincidence and hoping to get some answers or advice on how to retrieve the Macintosh HD in Disk Utilities, which was perfectly working before going through those steps.

iMac 21.5", macOS 10.14

Posted on Jan 27, 2020 10:31 AM

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Posted on Jan 27, 2020 10:52 AM

I'm a bit confused, do you have an older Mac OS running now or have you erased it?

If it's running then you can boot up normally and go to the AppStore and download the OS you want. Which one is it?


Yes, previously that is the way Disk Utility was setup, instead of just showing volumes. If you don't have a running OS, choose diskOS2 and erase it then format it Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and install the original OS it shipped with and you can upgrade from there.

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Jan 27, 2020 10:52 AM in response to JH_311

I'm a bit confused, do you have an older Mac OS running now or have you erased it?

If it's running then you can boot up normally and go to the AppStore and download the OS you want. Which one is it?


Yes, previously that is the way Disk Utility was setup, instead of just showing volumes. If you don't have a running OS, choose diskOS2 and erase it then format it Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and install the original OS it shipped with and you can upgrade from there.

Jan 27, 2020 10:43 AM in response to macjack

Thank you for your response. I was advised to try installing an old operating system (after not being able to install Catalina), and so the view is a bit different now. I don't see a "View" option to "Show All Devices" anymore. Currently, the side bar in Disk Utility reads "DiskOs2" and "Disk1>OS X Base Sysem" – and each of those items have the option to "First Aid", "Erase", or "Restore".

Macintosh HD and reinstallation

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