I got a folder with a Q mark
Booted into recovery mode,Attached a bootable USB drive
Cannot see main SSD. Can only See USB drive (external) & a 2 GB Mac OS base system (Internal)
Tried Internet recovery, still cannot see internal main SSD
Would appreciate help please to reinstall OS.
Thank you for your time. Here's what I did:
Attached my bootable USB drive and rebooted by pressing option Key.
This took me to a blank screen asking me to select Wifi network and also showed me an icon to install MacOs Catalina.
On selecting and giving password of my wifi network and clicking on Install MacOs Catalina. It took me to a screen asking for language. Proceeding further I get a screen "examining volumes" I got a startup screen and clicked on "Disk Utilities"
I selected------View------View all and can see my external USB drive and an internal 2GB MacOs Base system.
Still cannot see my main SSD partition.
Would appreciate your help!
To perform this action will require booting from a Bootable Installer. This will have to be performed from a Qualifying Computer to run the version of macOS to be made on the Bootable Installer. Example : Bootable Installer of Big Sur would have the done on a computer that Qualifies to run Big Sur.
Thank you so much for your revert. My apologies for the late revert as I was traveling. I opened my Mac and tried a new SSD and it immediately worked. The problem here was a defective SSD. The problem has been resolved. Thank you once again for your time.
Kind regards,
Jasii
Shutdown computer and disconnect all external drive Except the newly created Bootable Installer. Restart and immediately hold the OPTION key until the Startup Manager appears and choose the USB Drive. It will present options >> Disk Utilities >> View >> View ALL attached Drives. Choose the Upper Most Drive ( not the volumes indented and list below ). The drive normally is called Apple Media or Apple SSD - that is the drive to Erase and format as APFS with the GUID Partition Map. Once that is done >> backup out of Disk Utilities and choose install macOS. Follow the prompts and it may automatically reboot several time. Upon a final reboot - Setup Assist will present with the newer version of macOS.
If while booted from Bootable Installer and in Disk Utilities >> Can not see Internal Drive at all >> The drive may have failed completely.
Question about the computer - since Option with Bootable Installer did not work >> is this computer equipped with the Touch ID / T2 chip ?? It would appear so from the fact it did not boot from the USB Installer. Can you confirm this please ?
Hello!
I just checked online and found the following models have the T2 chip. My Macbook air is 2017 model hence it appears it does not have the said chip. (Please tell me if I am thinking wrongly)
These Mac computers have the Apple T2 Security Chip:
Regards,
Jasii
Hello,
The bootable installer is connected directly to the machine. You could be right about an issue with the installer. Will make another installer from an friends machbook air tomorrow as this is the only macbook at home. (Others have IBM).
However restarting from Shift+Command+Option+R and going to Disk utility still does not show me the main SSD but only shows me MacOs Base system partition (2gb) which is non writable and cannot be erased.
Thank you & regards,
Jasii
Are Right does not have the T2 Chip. How is the Bootable Installer attached to computer. Must be Directly to computer and Not through a HUB to work OR the Bootable Installer is not done correctly
Cannot see Main SSD when booting in recovery mode
