🛇- SSD Unbootable (in Recovery) & Seemingly Wiped Post-Mojave Update

AAStGeorge wrote:

Issue: incessant (every 2 secs) pop-up re: "your system has run out of application memory", recently. Multiple PRAM & SMC resets, to no avail. Also decided to install a minor Mojave security update that had been sitting in my Updates for some time. Shutting down again, the computer has since failed to boot, giving a white screen with 🛇 (pics attached).

This screen with the circle with slash through it indicates the laptop sees a bootable macOS, but it is either not compatible or the OS is damaged/corrupt.

[1] Any idea what might be going on (hardware vs software)?- ?SSD corruption (possibly after the security update);

The last boot log entry in the photo shows an issue with the APFS file system on the SSD "ERROR!!! Could not find APFS system volume handle".

[2] Is the data on my SSD gone for good, given that I'm not seeing any of my previous partitions/volumes/files in Recovery? The SSD Enclosure isn't being recognised when plugged into a Windows PC- any workaround to retrieve some of the data?

Your picture of Disk Utility is showing you booted into a very old version of macOS (likely macOS 10.7 Lion) which is unable to understand the new drive layout & APFS file system utilized by macOS 10.13+. You need to boot into macOS 10.13+ before you will be able to access the data on the SSD.

As for the Windows issue, you won't see the SSD in Windows File Explorer since Windows does not understand the Apple file systems. You should be able to see the physical SSD if you launch Disk Management (I think that is the correct name), but don't make any modifications to the SSD using Windows.

[3] Don't have a bootable USB/Installation CD- any way to actually get back into my laptop/boot up?

Try booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to see if you can access the online macOS 10.15 Catalina installer. Unfortunately some Macs will boot into the older online installer for the version of macOS which originally shipped on the Mac from the factory regardless of the keys used for booting.

In order to create a bootable macOS USB installer will require access to another compatible Mac. For macOS 10.15, generally you need a Mac from 2012 to 2019. You can also try creating a bootable macOS 10.13 USB installer which generally requires a Mac from Late-2009 to 2011 (this will only provide very limited options, so you may need to install 10.13 to an external drive so you could then create a 10.15 USB installer or upgrade the external drive to 10.15 so you can attempt to repair the SSD). For macOS 10.11, you would need a Mac from 2007 to mid-2009, so that you could then download a macOS 10.15 installer. Use this article to identify/confirm a compatible Mac (that Mac can currently be running any version of macOS 10.6+):

https://eshop.macsales.com/guides/Mac_OS_X_Compatibility

[4] If I opt to erase the SSD and reformat/repartition etc, how will I get the actual OS back on it?

See my response to #3. Unfortunately it seems Apple may have turned off their online recovery servers so it may not be possible to reinstall macOS from recovery mode, but you could try to do so to an external drive. If you happen to be able to get the online installer to run, you may still need to set the system date to some time in 2017 since the certificate for the installer may be expired.

[5] I do have a Time Machine backup from January- will I need to play around with the SSD (partitioning/formatting/etc) as in [4] above, if I opt to restore from here, or will the SSD automatically assume the settings from my Time Machine backup?

I don't use TM so I cannot say.

[6] Anything else I should be doing/checking?

I would check the health of the SSD just to make sure it is still healthy. You can do this using your Windows computer by running GSmartControl (they have a portable version of the app which does not require any installation, so you can run it directly from the downloads folder). GSmartControl has an option to save the health report. Copy & paste the contents of the full saved text report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper. Unfortunately SSD health reports need to be manually interpreted.

I would highly recommend checking the health of the SSD & posting the full report here before doing anything else. If the SSD has a hardware issue, it will help to know it since that may require different steps to proceed. If you cannot see the physical SSD on Windows using Disk Management or GSmartControl, then please tell us the exact make & model of the enclosure....some enclosures won't allow the necessary communication to access a drive's health information.

Is your backup recent or would you like to try to retrieve data from this SSD if possible?

Continued:

Re: the other questions you asked from above

[1] So far unable to download the GSmartControl app- using someone's computer at present, and the download keeps failing on it. I'm trying to get my hands on another soon, and will download the app & post the report here.

It is possible to use a bootable Knoppix Linux USB stick which has GSmartControl installed by default. It will boot a 2012 Mac and most PCs except for ones made in the last couple of years since Knoppix v9.x has not been updated in a couple years. Knoppix v8.6.1 would be the best one to use if attempting to boot the 2012 Mac since I've had a few issues booting the v9.x version on some systems.

[2] I do (preferably) want to retrieve the data from this SSD, as I've accrued a lot of info/files since my last backup in January. However, if I absolutely had to choose, I'd take a functional computer any day- as I have surgical exams very soon and need the stuff that's currently on there.

If you have access to a good Windows PC and are allowed to install third party drivers on it, then you could install a third party APFS driver to attempt to access the files on that SSD assuming it can be mounted. It is also possible to mount & access files on an APFS volume using a Linux boot disk, but doing so does require using the command line in order to manually identify & mount the APFS volume. Most Linux distributions require installing the APFS drivers since they are not installed by default (not difficult to install Linux drivers from the repository). Normally I would suggest using Knoppix for this, but unfortunately I don't think the APFS drivers are installed by default... installing them on Knoppix now may not be possible due to how Knoppix is patched together from various sources since even Knoppix v9.x was released several years ago and it would likely fail due to its oddly hacked together nature.

Do let me know your thoughts. (I'll also wait before installing Catalina.)

I would want to install Catalina to a known good drive (hard drive or SSD) so that I would have more options available to investigate things which would also make it easier to try to retrieve data from that SSD. Since the Catalina installer will insist on upgrading the laptop's system firmware, you may need to have a working & properly partitioned & formatted drive installed internally (it can be empty, the macOS installer usually insists on using the internal drive for updating the system firmware even when installing macOS to an external drive). The installer I believe places the firmware update onto the internal drive thinking it will be more stable & reliable than doing so from an external drive.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you here.

AAStGeorge wrote:

Bootable USB:

Did manage to find a bootable USB running macOS High Sierra 10.13 (which I'd forgotten I made a few years ago, when I initially had issues with the SATA cable). However, when attempting to boot up (Option/Alt held down) via this, I invariably get bounced back to the macOS Utilities menu [Pic 1 below]- seems I'm going around in circles. Entering Disk Utility here [Pic 2], it appears the High Sierra install is functional & seemingly bootable (Bootable- 'Yes', according to the info tab) [Pic3]. If I enter Recovery mode, the outcome is much the same [Pic 4]. If I do go back to the macOS Utilities menu and select 'Install macOS', I get a prompt for the installation of Mountain Lion. So I'm a bit confused at the moment, given the USB installer is seemingly okay/bootable (and previously used for the same, a few years ago).

Those pictures of Disk Utility (#2, 3, 4) do not show any physical drive for a destination for installing macOS. All I see in these pictures is the bootable USB stick for the installer.

Does this mean I'm likely left with no option now but to source a Macbook somewhere, and create a bootable Mojave USB?

Maybe, but what happens when you have a properly partitioned & formatted drive (aka "erased" and it can be an external drive).

On a similar note, why does the Disk Utility interface appear different & display different info, in each of the Pics 3 & 4?

Picture #3 is from macOS 10.13+ while picture #4 is from an earlier version of macOS 10.7 - 10.10.

Both the 'Disk number' and 'Partition number' (for the same USB installer) are different in Pics 3 & 4.

The disk number changes depending on how drives & volumes are detected and mounted.

SSD:

Periodically plugging in/checking the SSD since my last post (via the external caddy)- to a different outcome each time [Pic 5].

The items shown in Picture #5 is showing up incorrectly. I've seen this happen to some of our organization's Macs. I only noticed when I tried to erase the drive and had trouble doing so. This could be part of the problem with this SSD. I would erase the whole physical SSD as GUID partition and APFS (top option).

Most recently, when entering Recovery mode and clicking 'Install macOS', the option to install macOS Catalina has popped up. Didn't accept the install as yet, as I wasn't sure if this would inadvertently wipe my current SSD. Would it? If I do install Catalina via this option, would it replace the current macOS on my unbootable SSD, and would my files/docs still be present & in the same place if/when I do manage to log back into my Macbook?

You should be able to install macOS over top of a working bootable macOS drive assuming the OS on that drive meets the minimum OS requirements for Catalina without affecting the existing data on the drive, but something could always go wrong.

If the file system is HFS+ (aka MacOS Extended (Journaled)), then the file system will need to be converted to APFS during the installation, however, I'm not sure if Catalina will do this automatically (I know one of the later installers will no longer automatically convert the file system).

Plus with macOS 10.15 Catalina, 32 bit apps are no longer supported:

32-bit app compatibility with macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later - Apple Support

If that drive is able to boot the Mac, then I personally would not touch it since it may be your only way of creating a new bootable macOS USB installer since I would not trust that Internet Recovery Mode is available any more (you can boot to the utilities screen, but the "Install macOS" option fails due to "Unable to connect to recovery server" at least from a lot of reports I've seen on this forum).