Partitioned hd now containers and HD space missing?

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Level 1

4 points

Partitioned hd now containers and HD space missing?

Hi Guys,

I'm on a mid 2012 MBP

I partitioned my 2tb ssd couple of years ago to dual boot from mojave and catalina. A few days ago I partitoned my HD again to try and install ubuntu on but i couldn't get it to work. I downloaded a different version of linux {Zorin} and got it running. Thinking I'm on a roll here I'll see what other versions of linux I can have a mess around with. I partition my hd again last night and shut down my mac. Today I boot my mac and it boots up in Zorin and when I hold option I can only see the efi boot loader to get me back into Zorin, no mac partitons. I can see the other partitons when I look at the disks in Zorin.

I have swapped an old Hd into my mac and I've got my 2tb ssd in the case that the old drive was in. when I go into disk utility it says:

Samsung SSD 860 EVO 2TB Media

USB External Physical Disk • GUID Partition Map

disk3s2 850.13 GB {was the Catalina partition}

This volume has 850.13 GB used space.

Its minimum size is 850.13 GB.

This volume cannot be resized.

disk3s3 150GB {Zorin partition}

disk3s4 850.36 GB {was Mojave partition}

P&K 149.69 GB was going to be the other partition I was trying install a different linux version too.

It's like the last partition has corrupted or something. The other partitions are now called uknown

and give the partition sizes. The Catalina partition says this volume has 850.36 GB used space.

Its minimum size is 850.36 GB.

You cannot remove this volume because the previous volume cannot be resized.

This volume cannot be resized.

I've got a time machine of the 2td ssd from about christmas time If I have to restore from that but, I would like to fix it without having to do a full restore, if possible.

Any ideas please?

Posted on Sep 5, 2021 2:48 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

60,752 points

Sep 6, 2021 1:06 PM in response to iainwh

This is why I never recommend users creating multiple partitions on a drive (especially a boot drive) because users almost always wind up in this situation where they lose access to their data and various boot volumes. Modifying partitions is always risky so users should always confirm they have a good backup before making any system modifications.

You can try using a data recovery app such as Data Rescue to see if one of them can recover any of your data. Be prepared to sort through lots of unnamed files. However, since you have modified the partitions this make the process so much more difficult since many data recovery apps only work with individual partitions/volumes.

You can also contact an expensive data recovery service to see if they can recover the data. Trying to restore the partitions is very difficult to do especially when you've modified the partitions several times already.

Again, because you have made multiple partition modifications it makes fixing the partitions much more difficult. Plus if you make a mistake trying to correct the partitions the problems become even more compounded & complex. Ideally you should perform a low level bit for bit clone of the drive to another equal or larger drive (ideally you should do so by storing the clone in a raw image file so that you can clone a drive again and again if you make any mistakes so you can start from the current drive state each time). However, the only low level bit for bit cloning utility I'm aware of is a command line utility (ideally a Linux utility), but this is extremely dangerous even if you are very familiar with the command line as it is very easy to make a mistake and overwrite the source drive.

If you want to try out Linux, then you should consider installing Linux to an external drive instead so there is minimal chance of interfering with the macOS installation. An even safer option is to install Linux into a Virtual Machine or even using another laptop dedicated to Linux.

You should always have frequent and regular backups.

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Answer 2

iainwh Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 6, 2021 7:04 PM in response to HWTech

Thanks for your reply. I know I'm an eejit. I've formatted the HD and I'm currently restoring my time machine back up to it. Pain in the proverbial. I won't have lost that much stuff cause I've got most of my stuff on external drives. It will just be a bit of grief getting it back to how I had it the other day. Lesson learned!

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