How do I fix my partition issue? Disk utility won't let me do anything.

Hi georgecc,

Thanks for the detailed post! The output from "diskutil list" in Terminal was especially helpful.

It looks like you deleted your primary APFS container. You'll need to re-add it back in Terminal using the steps below.

Erasing the entire internal drive on an Apple silicon Mac won't work, because that never truly happens (unless you perform a DFU restore). This is because the iBoot System Container (Apple_APFS_ISC, disk0s1) is system critical; your Mac literally cannot start up without it. The System Recovery Container (Apple_AFPS_Recovery) is also super important; it contains an additional copy of macOS Recovery in case the regular copy gets damaged (or in your case, outright deleted).

To re-add your primary APFS container:

1. Start up in macOS Recovery, and open Terminal.
2. Run "diskutil list". Confirm that your internal drive is disk0, and that the Apple_APFS_ISC container is disk0s1.
3. Run this command to add your primary APFS container in its usual place (between the iBoot System Container and the System Recovery container): diskutil addpartition disk0s1 APFS "Macintosh HD" 0
4. If successful, the APFS container should be created and use the maximum size available (245 GB). An empty APFS volume named "Macintosh HD" will also be created inside the new container.
5. Quit Terminal and reinstall macOS.

This appears to be an Apple Silicon M1 Computer with a 256 GB SSD drive ?

What is the need for Partitioning the Drive - if we may ask.

This small of a drive may perform better if one was to Add another Volume

Notation - this computer would not be able to run any version of macOS older that the version it came with as New.

georgecc wrote:

I was messing around with the drive on my mac

First, how about if you tell us what you were messing around with and what happened?

Second, you cannot partition the drive when you are already booted into macOS. You can only do it if you are booted directly into Recovery Mode ... and you probably need to use Internet Recovery Mode and run Disk Utility from there. But normally there should be no reason to partition your boot drive, especially if it's only a 256GB SSD.

Your first screen shot looks normal to me. The first partition is your ~256GB drive and it contains ~245 GB free space. From the free space, it looks like macOS is not installed ... In Disk Utility do you see an APFS Container with 2 Volumes inside it (Mac HD and Mac HD-Data)?

See Use macOS Recovery on a Mac with Apple Silicon. Scroll down to the section entitled "Repair your internal storage device" and read/follow the instructions to basically re-set your SSD from scratch. In this sequence you will do a First Aid Repair on each existing Volume; then on each Container; and finally on the full drive. If you do this, follow the instructions exactly as they are written.

MartinR wrote:

georgecc wrote:

I was messing around with the drive on my mac

First, how about if you tell us what you were messing around with and what happened?

Second, you cannot partition the drive when you are already booted into macOS. You can only do it if you are booted directly into Recovery Mode ... and you probably need to use Internet Recovery Mode and run Disk Utility from there. But normally there should be no reason to partition your boot drive, especially if it's only a 256GB SSD.

Based on the screenshots, OP already appears to be booted from macOS Recovery, which makes sense considering that the main APFS container is completely missing.

Also, Apple silicon Macs can't use Internet Recovery at all. Instead, they have up to two additional copies of macOS Recovery installed in the Apple_APFS_Recovery container (which OP is most likely booted into).

Good advise from previous poster and suggest following.

Mucking around in areas one may not be familiar with could result in a required visit to the Apple Genius Bar to get things back.

This becomes even more so on the Apple Silicon M1 computes.

Things do not work the same as the Intel units we have all learned on over the year.

That and Apple using a " Sealed and Read Only " Volume that only Apple can allow changes to. It adds additional possible complications.