I have done some extensive research and cannot find the solution. I am prepping my 2015 MacBook Pro for resale. I went to erase the hard drive using Command-R, but the drive is not listed (pic attached). However, if I let it totally boot up, it's there. So, what's the deal? I tried clearing the NVRAM, but no success. Can I please get some help? Thank you!
MacBook Pro 13âł, macOS 11.6
You have a third party NVMe SSD installed in the laptop which requires macOS 10.13+. In your first picture you are booting into an earlier version of macOS which does not know anything about NVMe SSDs.
You can try booting into Internet Recovery Mode (Command + Option + R) to see if you can boot into the online Monterey installer (doubtful since Recovery Mode gave you an earlier version of macOS). Your other option is to create a bootable macOS 10.13+ USB installer using the instructions in this Apple article:
How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
Also, here is a list of things you need to do before performing a clean install of macOS:
What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac - Apple Support
You have a third party NVMe SSD installed in the laptop which requires macOS 10.13+. In your first picture you are booting into an earlier version of macOS which does not know anything about NVMe SSDs.
You can try booting into Internet Recovery Mode (Command + Option + R) to see if you can boot into the online Monterey installer (doubtful since Recovery Mode gave you an earlier version of macOS). Your other option is to create a bootable macOS 10.13+ USB installer using the instructions in this Apple article:
How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
Also, here is a list of things you need to do before performing a clean install of macOS:
What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac - Apple Support
And, booting from an from external drive, erasing the internal ssd and installing from a flash drive worked! Still shouldn't have been that difficult, but it's finished. As to why it would go all wonky like that, who knows? It's tech. The stuff isn't flawless by any means.
Thank all of you for your help. Stellar job, folks. Mark this one as SOLVED!
Have a Merry Christmas!
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065
Step eight covers erasing the drive. If you've done ALL of the above steps, and you still can't erase your drive, your situation will require further troubleshooting.
When would you want to boot less than "all the way in"? Is "all the way in" a normal startup?
Have you though of booting from an external drive and erasing the internal drive from there? That always seems to work for me.
You can also install a clean copy of the OS from a bootable flash drive.
Thank you for the reply. Those instructions were the ones I was using when I discovered all this nonsense. I've further tried safe mode and internet diagnosis, still get the results of the first pic. It sees it fine if I let it boot all the way in.
If this was a PC, I would've been finished DAYS ago. How aggrevating of CRAP-intosh. Btw, Big Sir (11.6.2) is installed on it now. The sdd was installed when I got it. I updated it to Big Sur with no issues. To have to go thru all of this just to wipe the thing is just 💩.
Yes, normal startup. I also tried a clean install with a flashdrive. DU didn't see the drive, as usual.
I'll try the external drive boot.
Thank you.
It was meant to be tongue in cheek ... glad you get it.
I'm sure Microsoft will welcome you back into the house.
Our 2020 27" iMacs are faster than any PC we've ever owned, and we have five of the infamous CRAP-intoshes. But, that's just us, YMMV of course.
I just 20 minutes ago wiped an external SD, installed Monterey and Migrated data from this very iMac I'm using right now. Whole process to about 40 minutes and with the exception of having to type in three passwords and a couple of "continue" buttons it was hand off until the login screen appeared. Again, YMMV.
I may send you this one.😁
I've done this many times on many a MacBook, but this one is not playing nice at all. It shouldn't be this involved.
As for the Microsoft comment, that was just hilarious. I got a good chuckle out of it.
Macintosh HD not found in recovery
