marks2510 Author

Level 1

8 points

accidentaly removed efi boot partition

hi guys,

I accidentally deleted EFI partition mac and now I can see the following when I run:

sudo gpt -r show disk0

Password:

start size index contents

0 1 PMBR

1 1 Pri GPT header

2 32 Pri GPT table

34 6

40 409600 1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

409640 157271616 2 GPT part - FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF

157681256 408

157681664 7548928 3 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

165230592 262144

165492736 70215864 4 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

235708600 1269536 5 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

236978136 7

236978143 32 Sec GPT table

236978175 1 Sec GPT header

so the 409640 157271616 2 GPT part - FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF partition is unmounted and I can't access it.

Any help to get this partition accessible again? I'm looking forward to someone that could help me on this.

many thanks

Marco

Posted on Jan 13, 2021 3:04 AM

Top-ranking reply

Loner T

Level 9

59,606 points

Posted on Jan 13, 2021 9:09 AM

This looks like an APFS header. Run

sudo gdisk /dev/disk0

p (print)

t (change type)

2 (GPT2)

AF0A (Apple APFS)

p (print)

w (write)

y (yes)

q (quit, if necessary)

Reboot and test if you can see the APFS partition. Be aware that some versions of macOS have older APFS KEXTs which may not understand newer versions.

View in context

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31 replies

Loner T

Level 9

59,606 points

Jan 13, 2021 3:36 PM in response to marks2510

marks2510 wrote:

sure:

Device Identifier: disk1s5

Device Node: /dev/disk1s5

Whole: No

Part of Whole: disk1

Volume Name: Macintosh HD

Mounted: Yes

Mount Point: /

This output shows that disk1 is where your current root file system is. Since you are booted from it, and can see all your files, we will assume that this where all your data is.

You can check if disk2 has any data, before you delete it, using macOS Finder. After you have verified it, you can then run the deleteContainer command. Another option is to create a Time Machine backup of the Mac on an external disk, and then delete disk2, which will allow you to pull information from the backup of disk2, if you need it.

marks2510 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 13, 2021 3:46 PM in response to Loner T

perfect, I did run the command and now diskutil list shows:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 80.5 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_HFS maverik 3.9 GB disk0s3

4: Apple_HFS Untitled 36.5 GB disk0s4

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +80.5 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data 64.9 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 83.4 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 528.5 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 2.2 GB disk1s4

5: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 11.0 GB disk1s5

marks2510 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 13, 2021 5:33 PM in response to Loner T

the 3 outputs:

diskutil eraseVolume free free disk0s3

Started erase on disk0s3 maverik

Unmounting disk

Finished erase on disk0

marcos****@Marcos-MacBook-Pro-13 ~ % diskutil eraseVolume free free disk0s4

Started erase on disk0s4 Untitled

Unmounting disk

Finished erase on disk0

---------------------------------------

diskutil eraseVolume free free disk0s4

Started erase on disk0s4 Untitled

Unmounting disk

Finished erase on disk0

----------------------------------------

diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk1 0g

Started APFS operation

Aligning grow delta to 40,600,002,560 bytes and targeting a new physical store size of 121,123,069,952 bytes

Determined the maximum size for the targeted physical store of this APFS Container to be 121,122,041,856 bytes

Resizing APFS Container designated by APFS Container Reference disk1

The specific APFS Physical Store being resized is disk0s2

Verifying storage system

Using live mode

Performing fsck_apfs -n -x -l -S /dev/disk0s2

Checking the container superblock

warning: container has been mounted by APFS version 1412.141.1, which is newer than 1412.120.2

warning: disabling overallocation repairs by default; use -o to override

Checking the EFI jumpstart record

Checking the space manager

Checking the space manager free queue trees

Checking the object map

Checking volume

Checking the APFS volume superblock

The volume Macintosh HD - Data was formatted by diskmanagementd (1412.120.2) and last modified by apfs_kext (1412.141.1)

Checking the object map

Checking the snapshot metadata tree

Checking the snapshot metadata

Checking the extent ref tree

Checking the fsroot tree

Checking volume

Checking the APFS volume superblock

The volume Preboot was formatted by newfs_apfs (748.77.8) and last modified by apfs_kext (1412.141.1)

Checking the object map

Checking the snapshot metadata tree

Checking the snapshot metadata

Checking the extent ref tree

Checking the fsroot tree

Checking volume

Checking the APFS volume superblock

The volume Recovery was formatted by newfs_apfs (748.77.8) and last modified by apfs_kext (1412.120.2)

Checking the object map

Checking the snapshot metadata tree

Checking the snapshot metadata

Checking the extent ref tree

Checking the fsroot tree

Checking volume

Checking the APFS volume superblock

The volume VM was formatted by newfs_apfs (748.77.8) and last modified by apfs_kext (1412.120.2)

Checking the object map

Checking the snapshot metadata tree

Checking the snapshot metadata

Checking the extent ref tree

Checking the fsroot tree

Checking volume

Checking the APFS volume superblock

The volume Macintosh HD was formatted by diskmanagementd (1412.120.2) and last modified by apfs_kext (1412.141.1)

Checking the object map

Checking the snapshot metadata tree

Checking the snapshot metadata

Checking the extent ref tree

Checking the fsroot tree

Verifying allocated space

The volume /dev/disk0s2 appears to be OK

Storage system check exit code is 0

Growing APFS Physical Store disk0s2 from 80,523,067,392 to 121,123,069,952 bytes

Modifying partition map

Growing APFS data structures

Finished APFS operation

[Personal Information Edited by Moderator]

marks2510 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 14, 2021 1:40 AM in response to Loner T

Yes I have full disk space back now but the only problem that I encounter is that if I boot the computer without tha option button it won’t load the macOS, a terminal with “grub>” prompt is showing instead.

Loner T

Level 9

59,606 points

Jan 15, 2021 6:10 AM in response to marks2510

Instead of deleting them, you may want to first create a backup of the EFI partition.You can use Disk Utility to create a disk image of the EFI partition, and then use the rEFInd Uninstaller (see https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/ for reference). Once it is uninstalled, then we can cleanup the remaining folders.

Loner T

Level 9

59,606 points

Jan 13, 2021 3:03 PM in response to marks2510

If you do not need to preserve disk2, you can run

diskutil apfs deleteContainer disk2

which will expose the underlying disk0s4 as an HFS+ partition.

Loner T

Level 9

59,606 points

Jan 13, 2021 4:19 PM in response to marks2510

Looks good so far. Do you want to keep the Mavericks installation?

marks2510 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 13, 2021 4:35 PM in response to Loner T

no I don't need either the maverick installation, the aim is to have only one partition with the max available space on disk

Loner T

Level 9

59,606 points

Jan 13, 2021 4:59 PM in response to marks2510

Then, run

diskutil eraseVolume free free disk0s3

diskutil eraseVolume free free disk0s4

diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk1 0g

and post the output.

Loner T

Level 9

59,606 points

Jan 14, 2021 5:34 AM in response to marks2510

Did you have rEFInd or any Linux versions installed on this Mac?

marks2510 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 14, 2021 7:48 AM in response to Loner T

yes I had Ubuntu on a partition

marks2510 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 14, 2021 4:35 PM in response to Loner T

sure! this is what's inside the EFI partition (screenshot attached)

Loner T

Level 9

59,606 points

Jan 14, 2021 7:58 PM in response to marks2510

You also have rEFInd. The typical EFI layout (including Windows) is

marks2510 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 15, 2021 1:02 AM in response to Loner T

should I delete the extra folders then?

marks2510 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 15, 2021 9:04 AM in response to Loner T

ok, I have now unistalled reFind and my EFI mounted partition is

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accidentaly removed efi boot partition