"View" option does not appear in disk utility in Recovery Mode

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Level 1

9 points

"View" option does not appear in disk utility in Recovery Mode

I am replacing the 512GB SSD in my late 2015 MacBook Pro [Retina], with a new 1TB SSD

I have a Time Machine backup of the existing disk to install on the new SSD, once it's installed and formatted correctly. The MacBook was running the latest version available of Monterey.

As far as I understand it, once I have physically installed the new SSD, I need to boot into recovery mode and then access disk utility to erase and reformat the new SSD. I will then be able to restore system & data from the Time Machine backup.

I have physically installed the new SSD.

I then booted into recovery mode, and chose Disk Utility from the options.

When I got to disk utility, the SSD was, and is, not visible. Which is what I expected.

My understanding was that I needed to reveal all disks via the ‘view’ option.

However, there is no view option visible in Disk Utility.

Am I doing something stupid?

Forgive me if this issue has been addressed elsewhere, but i could find no relevant information in my searches, both here and more widely online.

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Jan 23, 2026 5:04 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

140,903 points

Jan 23, 2026 5:50 PM in response to tontoe

<< When I got to disk utility, the SSD was, and is, not visible. Which is what I expected. >>

That is Not accurate.

The physical device should show, regardless of formatting or no formatting.

In ANY version of Disk Utility, whether it has a view menu or lacks a View menu,

if the physical device does not show, then that drive is not working. Formatting will not fix it.

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