accidentally made entire hd os x base system

I found a solution....but the chosen "answer" to this question is broadly described and gets you no where, so needless to say this has been driving me insane (Kappy's passive-aggressive follow up comment didn't exactly make me happy either....so on top of being wrong this person is also not keen on life in general).

Here's EXACTLY what I did, whether the most direct solution or not:

1. Hooked the Mac to an Ethernet connection (wifi will work fine as well)

2. Started in internet recovery (held down Command + Option + R) after hearing the chime

3. Let it do its thing (if you don't have Ethernet plugged in its going to prompt you for wifi creds)

4. When the recovery screen finally came on, I selected "reinstall Mac OS X"

5. Clicked through the junk written by lawyers

6. Brick wall....could not install on the single partition because it was locked/etc etc.

7. Went up to the file menu and quit the installer

8. We're back to the main recovery screen.

9. Open disk utility

10. Now I have something different: the main, locked hard drive and an ejectable disk with the same OS X Base System name (hope has been briefly restored, but vicious skepticism remains very high)

11. I select the very TOP item (the main disk, not the sub, which for me was a Toshiba something or other) and clicked "partition"

12. I changed the name to "Macintosh HD" (Put whatever you want here. Doesn't matter).

13. Change the vol. to journaled, and I did not choose the encrypted option because I was so screwed already the last thing I needed was to create myself more headaches....without this you're back to square 1

14. Partitioned it (don't worry, it won't bite....remember, you're already at rock bottom so it can't get any worse).

15. Quit disk utility

16. Go back and select "reinstall Mac OS X"

17. Junk by lawyers...click click click

18. Oh what's this? I can install on this disk now? Fantastic!

19. Run that baby

20. Voila......now you can freely look at cat / video game gifs, or reply to incorrect, passive aggressive comments on the Apple discussion boards. The choice is yours.

As for any other issues, I don't know. It works. Do I sound like an expert?

I hope it works for you. Enjoy.

I have excatly similar problems. And as suggested to complete steps till point 2. Point three cannot be executed because drop down menu is greyed out hence cannot be selected. Plese refer to images below. Please guide how to proceed?

reinstalling OS Sierra gives me "this disk is locked" problem.

Also tried Internet Recovery (cmd+option+R), but ended up with -2003F error. Used both wireless and ethernet. multiple times = same result.

I don't know how to set up the OS Sierra, please help me.

how do i fox that now? erased everything without having any chance to recover.

reinstalling OS Sierra gives me "this disk is locked" problem.

Also tried Internet Recovery (cmd+option+R), but ended up with -2003F error. Used both wireless and ethernet. multiple times = same result.

I don't know how to set up the OS Sierra, please help me.

Followed the instructions - no help. Getting error message:

Partition failed
Partition failed with the error:
Couldn't unmount the disk

Mount icon is not clickable (grey-ish), it says "mount" not "unmount".

I used following steps as suggested by Sara,

"Plug your Time Machine backup disk to your computer and boot your computer with the option key held in. Besides your HD and Time Machine backup you should see an additional Recovery disk option. Select the Recovery disk. In this mode the OSX Base System drive was no longer ‘locked’ and I could use my Time Machine backup to restore it."

It helped. This helped my recovery of Macintosh HD. this was followed by recovery through time machine.

Thank you.

🙂😍

I hadn't the same problem, but none of these solutions worked. I finally solved it by booting into recovery mode and then opening the terminal feature and changing the date (date 1011102717). When I exited the terminal, I went to disk utility and was finally able to enable journaling. From there, I was finally able to create a new partition and then install OS X!

Hello Kappy, I have the same problem, i tried to follow your instruction, but neither i can create partation, nor erase nor nothing since the tab are inactive. when i try to re-install OS, it shows OSX base system only. and when i select it it says operation couldn't be completed. permission denied. Please help me out,

Hi, Sara Griffin,

The post from Winnway from Apr 7, 2017 10:54 AM, solved my problem, which was the same problem that you have. Thanks to Winnway I'm back on my feet, he doesn't claim to be an expert, but he one on my books. (sorry for my English) ;-)

Install OS X Using Network Recovery

Be sure you have backed up your files because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.

Boot to the Network Recovery Server:

Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.

Partition and Format the hard drive:

1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your newly installed hard drive (this is the out-dented entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.

Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.

Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

This should restore the version of OS X originally pre-installed on the computer.

Thanks! This has been driving me mad for days now. Perfect solution.

I need help but i cant fix it as you say. Can you help me please ?

Please post a separate topic complete with full details of your problem. Read Writing an effective Apple Support Communities question.

Right after posting this i fixed problem thx anyway 🙂

Hello.

How did you fix your problem.

My harddisk is lock also..