Need hlep with a corrupt macOS partition

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Level 1

8 points

Need hlep with a corrupt macOS partition

To cut a long story short, I decided to dual boot macOS Monterey with Ubuntu 22.04 as I needed it for some tasks that were easier on Linux. I found Bluetooth support to be janky and had to use a wired USB keyboard and mouse to get my tasks done. So I decided I did not want to keep Ubuntu on my system long-term. The simplest solution I read online was to delete the Ubuntu partition from within macOS and remerge the volumes to recover the space. While this worked for swap, this did not work for the Ubuntu partition and I ended up with a FFFFFF on my macOS volume. Attaching the diskutil info below:

diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk0

1: EFI ⁨EFI⁩ 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF ⁨⁩ 459.9 GB disk0s2

(free space) 8.1 GB -

3: Apple_HFS ⁨UNTITLED⁩ 31.6 GB disk0s4

(free space) 268.4 MB -

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +459.9 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume ⁨Macintosh HD - Data⁩ 205.8 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume ⁨Preboot⁩ 231.3 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume ⁨Recovery⁩ 1.1 GB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume ⁨VM⁩ 1.1 GB disk1s4

5: APFS Volume ⁨Macintosh HD⁩ 15.4 GB disk1s5

6: APFS Snapshot ⁨com.apple.os.update-...⁩ 15.4 GB disk1s5s1

I have read some articles on apple.stackexchange to fix this but am running into more errors when I try them. Doing this https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/451126/linux-messed-up-guid-partition-table-for-apfs-container-on-external-drive with an ubuntu live usb leads to the following error:

Found invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format in memory

Warning! Main partition table overlaps the first partition by 32 blocks! You will need to delete this partition or resize in another utility.

Warning! Secondary partition table overlaps the last partition by 33 blocks! You will need to delete this partition or resize in another utility.

Could not change partition 2’s type code to 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC! Error encounter, not saving changes.

Can someone kindly give me stamp by step guide to correct this error and restore my mac to its original state with just a single partition having only macOS? My data is backed up to iCloud so if absolutely needed I can reinstall macOS from scratch. However, I would prefer to use recovery tools to solve the problem if possible.

Mac mini, macOS 12.6

Posted on Dec 1, 2022 10:20 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

PRP_53

Level 10

85,309 points

Dec 2, 2022 2:01 AM in response to hrpanjwani

Scorched Earth Method

This method will WIPE ALL Data and there is No Recovery - Period.

>> Only works on Intel Based Apple Computer <<

To perform this action will require booting from a Bootable Installer.

The Bootable Installer can Only be performed on an Apple Computer

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 to be done on a computer that Qualifies to run Big Sur.

Notation: If the computer being used to perform this action is Too New or Too Old to qualify to run the version of macOS - this computer can not be used.

Alternative is, to gain access to a Qualifying Apple Computer from a family member, friend or associate.

Extra Special Notation regarding the Touch ID equipped Apple Computer.

About Startup Security Utility and Must Enable from Recovery Mode the ability to boot from External Drive Before Attempting

1 - Shutdown computer and disconnect all external drive Except the newly created Bootable Installer.

2- Restart and immediately hold the OPTION key until the Startup Manager appears and choose the USB Drive.

3 - It will present options >> Disk Utilities >> View >> View ALL attached Drives.

4 - Choose the Upper Most Drive ( not the volumes indented and list below ).

5 - 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. This applies to macOS 10.14 Mojave and above.

5A - Formatting for macOS 10.13 High Sierra and below requires HFS Journaled with the GUID Partition Map

6 - Once that is done >> backup out of Disk Utilities and choose install macOS.

7 - Follow the prompts and it may automatically reboot several time.

8 - Upon a final reboot - Setup Assist will present with the newer version of macOS.

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Answer 2

hrpanjwani Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 2, 2022 4:11 AM in response to PRP_53

Thanks for your answer. Is that my only option at this point?

Like I said in my post, everything is backed up to iCloud so I won’t lose any data but I will have to install some apps again and track down their license keys etc.

If nothing else can be done I will go scorched earth. But if some trick is available to fix the corrupted partition I wold like to give that a shot first.

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