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Community members who reach Level 5 in the community can create User Tips to share knowledge about Apple products. Check out this User Tip created by Jack-19: Use an external SSD as your startup disk with your iMac or Mac mini
Community members who reach Level 5 in the community can create User Tips to share knowledge about Apple products. Check out this User Tip created by Jack-19: Use an external SSD as your startup disk with your iMac or Mac mini
Suddenly the "macOS Utilities" window appeared on the screen of my 2019 27" iMac.
None one the four "remedies" listed works. The "Restore" option finds no disks to restore. The "Reinstall" option finds no disk on which to reinstall the OS. The "Disk Utility" option finds no disk on the computer.
Therefore I'm using the "Get Help Online"option.
Have I lost my computer?
iMac 27″, macOS 10.13
Hi wallyhimself,
Unfortunately, that could be a real possibility. Your Mac does have the ability to start up from macOS Recovery (the "macOS Utilities" environment) from the Internet, and that's probably what happened if it suddenly couldn't detect your internal drive.
Can you please try these steps in Terminal:
Also, does your internal drive make any weird noises when starting up your Mac?
Likely you'll now need to rely on your backups to get your data into a usable state again. Possibly with a new, or newer, Mac.
Before I had a chance to try your solution, I decided to shut down my iMac. An hour later, when I restarted it, everything was fine. All apps working, wifi, printer connection, DropBox, AirDrop, all of it. I thank you for your thoughts and consideration.
Before I had a chance to try your solution, I decided to shut down my iMac. An hour later, when I restarted it, everything was fine. All apps working, wifi, printer connection, DropBox, AirDrop, all of it. I thank you for your thoughts and consideration.
You should check the health of the hard disk on the computer. I would recommend downloading the free version of DriveDX and test the internal HD. If ANY errors appear, then backup immediately and replace the internal HD. You can use an external SSD to replace the internal HD, this will speed up the computer and provide a more reliable solution than using a spinning HD. If you need help with this please click How to setup an external SSD as your startup disk
Thanks! That's a good tip.
Are you able to see the drive on the Desktop or in Disk Utility? Does it show in the System Information menu (hold down the Option key and go to the System Information… menu option).
If so you didn't lose it, it's just not working right. Definitely try rekaufmann87's recommendation of DriveDX.
Also so we don't reinvent the wheel what were the 4 options you tried?
No, I was not able to see the drive, neither on the desktop nor in Disk Utility. What had happened was the "macOS Utilities" window suddenly appeared on the screen of my 2017 27" iMac.
None one the four "remedies" listed in the "macOS Utilities' window worked. The "Restore" option found no disks to restore. The "Reinstall" option found no disk on which to reinstall the OS. The "Disk Utility" option found no disk on the computer.
Therefore I used the "Get Help Online"option.
My assumption now is that an electron was out of place somewhere inside my computer and it blew a fuse. After some consideration, I restarted my computer and all was well. I downloaded the DriveDX app. It told me everything was fine.
Thanks for the support.
Did I lose my hard drive?
