Stuck at spinning globe (Macintosh HD partition lost - can only access Bootcamp) - USB installer takes to internet recovery
Hi,
So my situation is as follows (MacBook Pro 15 inch 2018):
- I had two partitions, Macintosh HD and Bootcamp and I have been using Windows for only 2 days after installing it from Boot Camp
- Now, I did a disk cleanup and when I go to Boot Menu (hold Option key), the Macintosh HD is gone. I did some diagnostics and realized that the MacOS partition somehow got deleted.
- So, I tried Internet recovery at boot but the globe kept spinning (without any progress bar) for a long time (even 6 hours++) so I moved to the next attempt below.
- I have a second Macbook Pro (which is an older one - mid 2012) from which I created a bootable USB installer following every guideline from Apple support) and created a High Sierra thumb drive.
- Then I plugged it into my 2018 MBP, pressed and held option and got 2 choices in the boot menu - Bootcamp and "Install Mac OSX High Sierra". I selected the second one.
- Option and got It asked me for my wifi password (just like internet recovery) - and reverted on doing the same spinning globe (OVERNIGHT!) - SPINNING GLOBE - NO PROGRESS BAR.
- One time I got this message, "Starting internet recovery. This may take a while." I waited 12 hours and the message never went away. From the support forum, I understand that a progress bar is expected after this but it doesn't even reach that.
- I thought this was a version issue - so I tried making USB installers for Mojave and Catalina - same situation.
I am very very lost at this point. I saw that there could be DNS issue or something, internet connectivity issues etc. on the forum but I highly doubt that is the problem because I can access the internet freely from the Windows partition and also my other Macbook - very easily.
So, I basically need to know - why am I being put into the internet recovery cycle even though I created a USB installer and how can I solve this problem.
Would really appreciate your help.
MacBook Pro 15”, macOS 10.14