Macintosh HD is missing

Question

Macintosh HD is missing

I erased my computer for security purposes but did it remotely from my phone i didn't think it would erase the entire system. I can't reboot it now/restore it. The directions say to save the downloaded OS to Macintosh HD file/folder as step two in the directions; however, I don't even have a Macintosh HD folder as an option. ??? help me!

ps - what I DO have listed in disk utility is: Apple SSD Media (which seems a tad sketchy) and macOS Base Systems. Neither is partitioned and the SSD Media when I did restore (or first aid) as I was just exploring my options well it could NOT be restored or fixed seemed to be something super sketchy there. not sure what it is, too.

I hope this whole help chat/community forum actually works because I always avoid it when i can. i'm crossing my fingers.

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Jul 22, 2021 12:55 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Community+ 2026

Level 9

71,186 points

Jul 22, 2021 1:59 PM in response to courtenayveenis

As @AppleGeek1208 mentions you need to erase the physical SSD which is identified as "Apple SSD ....". If you are booting into a macOS 10.13+ installer on an Intel Mac, then you may need to click "View" within Disk Utility and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. Select the physical drive which should now be shown as "Apple SSD ...." and should be the top most item and erase it as GUID partition and APFS (top option).

If you are booting an older version of macOS installer (macOS 10.11 or 10.12), then erase the physical drive as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled).

If you are booting macOS 10.6 to 10.10 installer, then use the instructions in this article for partitioning and formatting the physical drive:

https://www.owcdigital.com/assets/support/support-formatting-and-migration/Mac_Formatting_6-10.pdf

If you have an M1 Mac, then you need to follow the instructions in this Apple article:

Use macOS Recovery on a Mac with Apple silicon - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 2

Jul 22, 2021 1:14 PM in response to courtenayveenis

You must repartition the drive to use it again for macOS (I think you will have to repartition 'Apple SSD Media') To repartition the drive, press Command+R on startup (Intel Macs) or hold in the power button on startup and select the options button in boot options (Apple Silicon Macs). Then click disk utility, click on the drive then click on partition (Name it 'Macintosh HD' and format as 'APFS' and make sure it uses all of the drive space). Then go back and click on 'Reinstall macOS'.

Reply

Macintosh HD is missing

Similar questions