Unmounted internal hard drive does not show up in disk utility

Question

Unmounted internal hard drive does not show up in disk utility

My 2014 mbp decided it no longer would boot up. I ran disk utility first aid and it couldn’t unmount the drives to complete the first aid.

I tried to restore from a Time Machine back up, but it said it couldn’t.

i tried reinstalling the os but it could t do that either.

i went into terminal and unlimited the internal drive and was able to run first aid finally.

I restarted the computer though and it has seemingly reverted to the startup drive which wants to reinstall mavericks instead of Big Sur.

The problem now is that it won’t reinstall the os because the hard drive doesn’t show up to choose it. disk utility can’t find it either.

I’m not sure what to do now. Does anyone have any ideas?

I’m thinking I need to get back into terminal and force mount the drive, but when I go back in, it’s not there either.

Posted on Dec 14, 2024 1:15 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Community+ 2026

Level 9

74,802 points

Dec 15, 2024 8:36 PM in response to stevefrombrooksville

First, macOS 10.11 and earlier won't recognize the APFS file system, but they should show the physical drive on the left pane of Disk Utility.....except when a third party NVMe SSD is installed internally. In that case you need to boot from macOS 10.13+ in order to see a third party NVMe based internal SSD.

Try booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to attempt to access the online Big Sur installer. Unfortunately some Macs may only boot to the online installer for the OS which originally shipped with the Mac from the factory regardless of the keys used.

If you have access to another compatible working Mac from Late-2009 to mid-2021, then you can create a bootable macOS USB installer....

macOS 11.x with a Mac from 2013 to mid-2021
macOS 10.15 with a Mac from 2012 to mid-2020
macOS 10.13 with a Mac from Late-2009 to mid-2018

You can confirm the other Mac is compatible with the OS by using the information in the following article:

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

If you are booted from macOS 10.13+ and do not see the physical SSD, then you have a hardware issue with that Mac. An SSD failure is most likely, but if you are using a third party SSD, then an issue with the SSD adapter is also a possibility. There is also a slim chance of a Logic Board failure. Within Disk Utility (macOS 10.13+) you need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" before the physical drives appear on the left pane of Disk Utility.

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Answer 2

Dec 17, 2024 7:08 AM in response to HWTech

This was exactly the problem. I used my wife’s 2019 mbp to create a Big Sur bootable installer on a thumb drive. After using that and booting to recovery, the drive showed up in disk utility and I was able to format it.

Currently, installing the os keeps failing. I’m wondering if it is because the drive isn’t formatted correctly for that OS?

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Answer 3

Dec 17, 2024 9:28 AM in response to stevefrombrooksville

Within Disk Utility click "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. Erase the whole physical SSD as GUI partition and APFS (top option). This is required for macOS 11.x+ since those later installers no longer automatically convert an HFS+ volume to APFS.

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Answer 4

varjak paw

Level 10

183,216 points

Dec 15, 2024 8:51 AM in response to stevefrombrooksville

That would not prevent it from appearing in Disk Utility or through diskutil in Terminal, not unless something so badly corrupted the drive that it's now unusable, which (as unlikely as it is that such happened) is in effect the same thing as a hardware failure.

Regards.

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Answer 5

kaz-k

Level 9

52,450 points

Dec 15, 2024 1:30 AM in response to stevefrombrooksville

Hi,

I suppose your internal HDD is something wrong. You should replace it, replace with SSD instead of HDD could be faster than HDD replacement.

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Answer 6

Dec 15, 2024 9:55 AM in response to stevefrombrooksville

Disk Utility is the Grand Arbiter of Raw drives and Mountable volumes.

The definition of a drive that is unusable is:

will not tell Disk Utility Its Make&Model (when set to "Show All Devices") AND

a will not show Disk Utility a reasonable non-zero Size/Capacity

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Answer 7

varjak paw

Level 10

183,216 points

Dec 15, 2024 7:05 AM in response to stevefrombrooksville

It sounds to me like a hardware failure, possibly the SSD itself.

Regards.

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Answer 8

varjak paw

Level 10

183,216 points

Dec 17, 2024 8:11 AM in response to stevefrombrooksville

A long shot, but what partition scheme did you use with that internal? It needs to be GUID to be able to install macOS and boot from it.

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Answer 9

Dec 18, 2024 7:12 AM in response to HWTech

Thank you so much for your help. I made the changes to the format and was able to reinstall Big Sur and then use my Time Machine backup to get everything back.

I’ve been planning on getting a new computer as this is the second time this has happened, but I’ve put it off as I’m saving for a new laptop for my graduating daughter. Once I get that, I may be moving to a Mac mini since I no longer travel.

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