OS X Utilities options don't show HardDrive

My computer was in sleep mode and was not starting. So i pressed the power button and held it to restart the computer. When the computer turned back on, it showed a Box with question mark.


I restarted and pressed down the option key on startup. It asked me for my wifi password and went through internet recovery. The next screen was the OS X Utilities windows. When I click on the first option, Restore from Time Machine Back up. I see no backups.

In the second option, when I click on Reinstall OS X, I don't see the HD. There is no disk shown to select from to install OS X.

The third option is Disk Utility. It shows me disk0 and then Mac OS X Base System that has a 1.19GB capacity. I can only click on the verify key. The Repair disk is greyed. There is also a greyed SuperDrive in the top left hand corner of the window. When I click on Erase, all options are greyed.

The final option is the Get Help Online which gives me access to a Safari Window.


What can I do to fix this issue?


Thanks.

J

MacBook Pro with Retina display, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on May 18, 2016 4:31 PM

Reply
8 replies

May 19, 2016 6:10 AM in response to JoMusicCity

It asked me for my wifi password and went through internet recovery.

It should only go through to Internet Recovery if "regular" recovery (which resides on a partition on your Hard drive) is not available. This could indicate your drive died suddenly.


It seems to me you have nothing to lose by shutting down and trying to start up again. Maybe your drive will show up. Or maybe it is gone for good.


If it is gone for good, the only way to make progress is to obtain another drive, and Install MacOS (your original MacOS) on it using Internet Recovery. with a MacBook Pro, you should do the Install in an external enclosure, and run it from there to be sure it is settled and working before complicating this with possible problems from "surgery".


What exact model MacBook Pro ?


2.5-in Rotating Drive, 2.5-in SSD drive, or SSD "stick"?

May 19, 2016 7:26 AM in response to JoMusicCity

SIMILAR PROBLEM

This is happening to me as well.


A few month ago my computer was incredibly slow, i got a new SSD, reinstalled the OS and everything was fine.


Now I'm getting the "question mark on folder" icon when i boot. I try the recovery and same thing happens where i cant choose a hard drive to reinstall the OS onto.

So if i go back, i cannot click "Verify" on the hard drive it is gray.

I cannot erase hard drive. everything is gray

And if i try to create a new partition, it says not enough space or error 61 (something like that)


This is my 2nd SSD, should i replace the hard drive cable? or try a new SSD or HDD?


Any help would be great, Thanks

May 19, 2016 7:56 AM in response to Jbronn

Jbronn


if you are using a third-party SSD, you MUST enable TRIM as well, or the drive will fill up with deleted data, slow way down, and then stop.


To get it to respond, you may have to leave it powered on, but not being accessed for a half hour. This sometimes allow the drive to do an Internal "Garbage collect" and free ONE block for writing. It may take more than one of those cycles for success.


Third party Utilities such as TRIM Enabler are still available. Apple has added optional support for third-party TRIM starting in 10.10.4, with:


sudo TRIMforce enable


but that will not immediately make a stuffed drive recover. It may require an erase after TRIMforce,

May 19, 2016 12:26 PM in response to Jbronn

Probably not. 'regular" recovery mode is another partition on your boot drive, and if it uses disk blocks to get itself going, it may lock up the drive again.


Internet recovery might work (Command-Option-R, and you get the spinning globe and it loads all the "stuff" off the Internet and puts in on a RAM disk.)


Best bet would be if you could boot from a completely different disk, or from a USB Installer/Utilities USB drive you made, or the 10.6 Installer/Utilities DVD (if your Mac can run it).

May 19, 2016 5:11 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

Jbronn


if you are using a third-party SSD, you MUST enable TRIM as well, or the drive will fill up with deleted data, slow way down, and then stop.

That is not totally true. It depends on the make and model of SSD. Some vendors provide an extra large number of spares that garbage collection can pre-clear so they are ready for writes.


TRIM allows the file system to tell the SSD that the storage for deleted files can be pre-cleared early increasing the number of cells ready to be written.


The larger the number of pre-cleared the large continuous write that can occur before the SSD is forced to do garbage collection and clear cells before a new write can occur.


Again, it all depends on the specific SSD whether it has a small set of spares, or lots (for example, if you have a 480GB SSD, chances are it has a total capacity of 512GB, and 32GB is kept as spares.

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OS X Utilities options don't show HardDrive

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