Couldn’t repair the partition map because a new EFI system partition couldn’t be created.

My Macbook Pro - Retina 13"Late 2012 with Sierra

Problem started one day when switching on the laptop to find nothing but a black screen with an icon of folder with a question mark.

I booted to disk utility and found the main storage disk (Macintosh HD) to be listed in red.

I tried to verify it and the error message "The partition map needs to be repaired because there’s a problem with the EFI system partition’s file system." appeared.

I tried to repair it and the error message "Couldn’t repair the partition map because a new EFI system partition couldn’t be created." appeared.

I connected a USB external disk and reinsatalled OS on it. Booted up from the external disk, and tried to migrate data from the internal SSD but OS could not find the SSD.

Running disk utility from the external disk gave the same red listing of the internal main disk with the same errors when trying to verify and repair.

I found a post on AskDifferent to diagnose and fix EFI partitioning problems but it was too technical I couldn't understand what exactly to do.

I'm wondering if I can ever recover the data on the SSD, or whether it is a hardware issue.

Below are the full messages from disk utility and Terminal disk reports

Verify

Verifying partition map for “APPLE SSD SD128E Media”

Checking prerequisites

Checking the partition list

Checking for an EFI system partition

Checking the EFI system partition’s size

Checking the EFI system partition’s file system

Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting

Error: The partition map needs to be repaired because there’s a problem with the EFI system partition’s file system.

Repair

Verifying and repairing partition map for “APPLE SSD SD128E Media”

Checking prerequisites

Checking the partition list

Adjusting partition map to fit whole disk as required

Checking for an EFI system partition

Checking the EFI system partition’s size

Setting the EFI system partition’s size

Creating a new EFI system partition

Problems were encountered during repair of the partition map

Error: Couldn’t repair the partition map because a new EFI system partition couldn’t be created.

diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *121.3 GB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_CoreStorage 120.5 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot 650.0 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk1

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_HFS TamerHD 999.3 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk1s3

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_partition_scheme *199.5 MB disk2

1: Apple_partition_map 32.3 KB disk2s1

2: Apple_HFS Google Chrome 199.5 MB disk2s2

diskutil cs list

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)

|

+-- Logical Volume Group C0C06D2E-FEE1-4DDA-9D66-77BB1DD6BC63

=========================================================

Name: Macintosh HD

Status: Offline

Size: 0 B (0 B)

Free Space: -none-

|

+-< Physical Volume 3B20E795-C2D2-432C-8EBB-C12EC8617092

----------------------------------------------------

Index: 0

Disk: disk0s2

Status: Checking

Size: 120473067520 B (120.5 GB)

Any suggested solutions would be highly appreciated.