Data disk apparently corrupted, recovery mode can’t repair it and I’m honestly in despair

Hello everyone, I hope I can find someone who has enough knowledge to help me with this situation.


So, up until an hour ago I had a windows partition on my macbook air, which has always worked fine. I decided to remove it since I didn’t need it anymore, so I opened up Bootcamp Assistant and tried to delete it but it didn’t work, and I got a message asking to do some S.O.S action using Utility Disk. I went to do that, and I got told that “S.O.S” had found a damaged zone that needed to be repaired and that I should do so by entering Recovery Mode and do S.O.S from there. I then checked Bootcamp Assistant again and it was behaving like there was no windows partition on my macbook anymore, but checking the available space on it the space that I was using on the windows partition was still missing. So I restarted my macbook using recovery mode, and that was the last time I saw my desktop. (Up until me trying to uninstall the windows partition everything was working perfectly with the mac)


On recovery mode, I went and did S.O.S on all of the disks and it failed on one of them, named Macintosh HD - Data. I tried multiple times, (I’m still able to do this) and it keeps telling me that it’s failing to repair the disk and that I should proceed with a backup if it’s possible (couldn’t it tell me earlier when I was still on my desktop?), which I guess is impossible from recovery mode.


After that, I just tried restarting my computer and this time it asked me to proceed with a software update before doing so. After the update was done, I was able to get to the login screen and enter the password to my user in order to access the computer, but the charging bar only progressed a tiny little bit before my macbook went black and restarted. (I’m also still able to attempt this, but it won’t let me in).


Now, I’ve given up every hope regarding getting my files back, which I’m not too worried about as I keep the most important ones in an external SSD (I would still prefer to get everything back obviously), but I don’t understand if my macbook is broken or not and if there’s any chance that I can get it back to work. I can’t reinstall MacOS Sonoma because there’s not enough space on the disk, since it’s missing half the capacity from the windows partition that just ghosted me, and I have no idea on what I should do. Should I initialize, restore, deactivate any of the disks?


The disks I’m seeing through Utility Disk in recovery mode are:

  • Macintosh HD (which contains the two next ones), no errors with s.o.s mode
  • Macintosh HD, no errors with s.o.s mode
  • Macintosh HD - Data, which is the one that the s.o.s mode can’t stand
  • macOS Base System, no errors with s.o.s mode


The following text contains everything that is written on the details tab of the failing s.o.s. process:



I’m definitely going to ask for support in an Apple Store but first I wanted to try and understand if this is something I can fix myself, and also put my mind at ease if it easy broken and irreparable after all; I don’t want to find out that in front of an Apple employee.


Thanks to everyone who will read this and try to help!! I’m very grateful

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.0

Posted on Feb 12, 2024 12:17 PM

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Posted on Feb 12, 2024 6:14 PM

Did you run First Aid on the hidden Container as was suggested by the First Aid log you attached? Within Disk Utility you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" before the hidden Container appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. FYI, I always prefer to run First Aid on the hidden Container since it will check the main portion of the Container as well as all APFS volumes within that Container.


What actually happens when you attempt to boot into Safe Mode?


You can try using the right shift key for Safe Mode since I don't believe it matters which Shift key is used. You can also try using an external wired USB keyboard as well to eliminate any issue with the built-in keyboard. Also the timing of the special startup keys is critical. Pressing the key too early can prevent the system from booting & with the fast boot times of the later Macs it is best to press & hold the Shift key (or any special startup keys) immediately after hearing the Startup Chime (Intel Macs only).


FYI, disabling Filevault to troubleshoot a boot issue is not a good idea since it severely limits what can be done with the file system until the whole decryption process has been completed. It usually causes more problems for the user if the decryption process does not complete successfully. I've only ever seen a few confirmed reports online where Filevault had to be turned off to fix a problem. I'm not sure I ever encountered such a situation while supporting thousands of my organization's Macs for decades.


Keep in mind you can install macOS to an external USB3 SSD & boot from the external macOS drive which can sometimes allow you more options since Recovery Mode is so limited. Plus if you need to recover data, you can try using a macOS data recovery app.


Also, people should always have frequent and regular backups of their computer and all external media (including the cloud) which contains important & unique data. Apple has included Time Machine backup software with macOS for decades to make the process as easy as possible. With newer Macs, there are a lot more new ways to permanently lose access to data on an internal SSD, so backups are now more important than ever before.

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4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 12, 2024 6:14 PM in response to MarioFerrettii

Did you run First Aid on the hidden Container as was suggested by the First Aid log you attached? Within Disk Utility you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" before the hidden Container appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. FYI, I always prefer to run First Aid on the hidden Container since it will check the main portion of the Container as well as all APFS volumes within that Container.


What actually happens when you attempt to boot into Safe Mode?


You can try using the right shift key for Safe Mode since I don't believe it matters which Shift key is used. You can also try using an external wired USB keyboard as well to eliminate any issue with the built-in keyboard. Also the timing of the special startup keys is critical. Pressing the key too early can prevent the system from booting & with the fast boot times of the later Macs it is best to press & hold the Shift key (or any special startup keys) immediately after hearing the Startup Chime (Intel Macs only).


FYI, disabling Filevault to troubleshoot a boot issue is not a good idea since it severely limits what can be done with the file system until the whole decryption process has been completed. It usually causes more problems for the user if the decryption process does not complete successfully. I've only ever seen a few confirmed reports online where Filevault had to be turned off to fix a problem. I'm not sure I ever encountered such a situation while supporting thousands of my organization's Macs for decades.


Keep in mind you can install macOS to an external USB3 SSD & boot from the external macOS drive which can sometimes allow you more options since Recovery Mode is so limited. Plus if you need to recover data, you can try using a macOS data recovery app.


Also, people should always have frequent and regular backups of their computer and all external media (including the cloud) which contains important & unique data. Apple has included Time Machine backup software with macOS for decades to make the process as easy as possible. With newer Macs, there are a lot more new ways to permanently lose access to data on an internal SSD, so backups are now more important than ever before.

Feb 13, 2024 3:54 AM in response to HWTech

Hi! I was actually able to fix the problem thanks to a comment of yours on another thread, henceforth thank you so much because you helped a lot!


I ended up erasing the whole disk and reinstalling macOS, and now everything is back to normal. As I said I wasn’t too worried about any of the files because I had already moved the important ones to an external SSD (because of the 150gb I was left with due to the windows partition LOL) and I also had my desktop and documents folders linked to iCloud, and I basically kept everything there.


I will make sure to always have a backup in the future. Happy ending I would say, I get to set a new wallpaper and widgets and stuff and feel like I have a new macbook. Thank you so much once again!!!

Feb 12, 2024 1:46 PM in response to MarioFerrettii

Update: Recovery mode First Aid was now able to successfully repair all disks I believe, but the perpetual restarting of the macbook after I enter my password continues. I read somewhere I should boot the computer in safe mode to check what the problem is, but safe mode doesn’t work… I’m sure the problem is not the shift key on my keyboard, I already disabled Filevault and Firmware password through Recovery mode and I also did a reset of SMC. I am very confused as the Internet doesn’t seem to be listing any other possible cause for a failed attempt at launching safe mode

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Data disk apparently corrupted, recovery mode can’t repair it and I’m honestly in despair

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