Macintosh HD disappeared during reset

My partner was wiping her Macbook (2016) ready for sale and somewhere during the process the SDD has disappeared and now there is no disk available to reinstall Mac OS to. From what I can gather she followed this process (https://9to5mac.com/2022/11/04/how-to-reset-macbook-and-mac-desktops/) but summarised her steps here:


1) Opened Disk Utility, selected Apple SSD and Erased

2) Entered a new name for the disk, formatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and partition set to GUID Partition Map

3) Exited out of Disk Utility and clicked Reinstall macOS

4) The installation started but after some time the below error appeared

5) The Macbook then restarted but afterwards the Apple SSD was gone and the only disk in the Disk Utility is Apple OS X Base System



I have since been trying to follow Kappy's guide here (OS X Base System only disk available - Apple Community) but I'm not able to open in the (Cmd+Options+R) recovery mode, I can only open it in (Cmd+R) or (Cmd+Shift+Options+R) and the only disk I have is the OS X Base System.


I would be really grateful if anyone has any idea what I can try next. If it's going to require a repair at the Apple Store I suspect it'll cost more than the thing is worth. Any advice hugely appreciated.

Posted on Jan 15, 2023 2:57 PM

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Posted on Jan 15, 2023 3:21 PM

Try force restarting your mac to access the Cmd+Options+R menu. Press and hold the touch ID/ power button until the screen disappears, wait a minute, and then power on the mac. immediately press Cmd+Options+R.


If that doesn't work, go to disk utility, click view, see all devices. you should then see the main SSD in your mac. Reformat it, and you should be able to continue with the installation process.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 15, 2023 3:21 PM in response to anotheruser_

Try force restarting your mac to access the Cmd+Options+R menu. Press and hold the touch ID/ power button until the screen disappears, wait a minute, and then power on the mac. immediately press Cmd+Options+R.


If that doesn't work, go to disk utility, click view, see all devices. you should then see the main SSD in your mac. Reformat it, and you should be able to continue with the installation process.

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Macintosh HD disappeared during reset

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