What does this error mean: com.apple.DiskManagement error 16

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Level 1

4 points

What does this error mean: com.apple.DiskManagement error 16

Greetings. I'm using a late-2013 MacBook Pro that has Mavericks (MacOS 10.9) on it. The SSD is 250GB and is the M.2 form factor (it is a SanDisk drive). Safari was in the middle of an update, it froze, I restarted, and now my MacBook Pro won't boot up completely. The progress bar with the Apple logo gets about halfway. I have tried the following:

> Boots into Internet Recovery, wireless and wired. The restart following continues to hang.

> PRAM reset. I gave up after 12 hours, where the progress bar stayed stuck at halfway for almost 10 hours by itself.

> Safe Mode it still hangs on boot.

> Recovery Mode doesn't show the SSD drive.

I purchased the recommended OWC Envoy enclosure to connect the M.2 SSD to my older MacBook Pro, using High Sierra, via USB 3.0. While booting normally on my older MacBook, I run First Aid from Disk Utility and it tells me there is a damaged boot map partition. When I run First Aid, in the normal OS, I get "Operation failed with status 16: Resource busy"..."Operation failed". I also go into Recovery Mode, do the same thing, get the same result. I found a post where someone tried Safe Mode, because a third-party software may be involved, and Safe Mode prevents it from loading. I am planning on giving this a try later today, although I would expect Recovery Mode to be similar to Safe Mode in this instance.

I also tried to image the M.2 SSD to an external HDD (it is 2TB, formatted to MacOS Extended, with Journaling, GUID Partition Map). Upon doing this it errors out with the following: "The operation couldn't be completed. (com.apple.DiskManagement error 16)". I searched for anyone hitting this error and I have come up empty, so now I'm concerned I have hit something REALLY bad. What does this error mean? I really need to get the data saved off this M.2 SSD so if I'm at a point where I need to go to an Apple Store, that's worth knowing and I can do that. If there's anything more I need to try, I need to know exactly what to do. If there is absolutely nothing that can be done, by me or even an Apple Store associate, that's something I need to know as well.

I have not tried the SMC reset. I hesitate because I don't think that it would help the SSD, based on what I've read about how it has recovered problems. And, it looks like quite an effort and I don't want to damage something. I have not tried an inplace recovery of MacOS in Recovery Mode because I really, really don't want to lose the data on the M.2 SSD drive, which is why I'm going about the path of saving this as an image to an external SSD. I am willing to give these a try if there are very good reasons for doing so.

Thank you in advance.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9), 250GB SanDisk M.2 SSD

Posted on Nov 1, 2017 8:40 AM

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Answer 1

PN2

Level 4

1,052 points

Nov 3, 2017 10:22 AM in response to acwenzlick

Thanks for the update. Unfortunately, there's likely a hardware problem with it; but testdisk or other 'data recovery' approaches are worth a try.

SMC reset, while not indicated for this (and doubly so since another Mac couldn't read the drive) is no special effort :

How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

If the battery is nonremovable:

Shut down your Mac.
Using the built-in keyboard, press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the keyboard, then press the power button at the same time. Hold these keys and the power button for 10 seconds.
If you have a MacBook Pro with Touch ID, the Touch ID button is also the power button.
Release all keys.
Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.

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Answer 2

acwenzlick Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 13, 2017 8:47 AM in response to PN2

Last update...

I used an external drive and was able to successfully load MacOS High Sierra onto it. I then took it into a local shop, ubreakifix, and they were unable to read the M2 SSD on any of their equipment. They also could not get a working M2 SSD to work within my laptop. In their opinion both the M2 SSD is bad, and its connection to the laptop's motherboard.

I then connected with a company called Drive Savers, and over the phone they confirmed for me what ubreakifix determined. They have a method of extracting the data from failed devices like mine (I think they take it all apart and reassemble it in a working environment, then extract the data...very high success rate), but it's a much more expensive approach, so I determined that I need to simply resort to the external drive, and that my data is lost.

Thank you for all the suggestions and advice!

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Answer 3

acwenzlick Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 3, 2017 7:05 AM in response to acwenzlick

Update...I contacted Apple Support and I was given some suggestions. I was made aware of the Apple Diagnostics approach, where you hold 'D' as the computer turns on. I put the M.2 drive back into the MacBook and did the diagnostics. The report showed nothing being wrong, so I shut down. I then tried Recovery Mode on the MacBook and it came up. It showed the M.2 SSD, but then any time I tried to do something with it (First Aid, Verify Disk, Reinstall OS X) the SSD would suddenly disappear. I am going to give TestDisk a try by putting the M.2 SSD back into the OWC Enclosure, connect it to my older MacBook, and see if it will do anything. An SMC Reset was suggested, but since this MacBook has a removeable battery there are too many things to disconnect for my comfort. And also, the conditions for why you would do an SMC Reset don't apply to my problem.

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Answer 4

PN2

Level 4

1,052 points

Nov 3, 2017 1:19 PM in response to acwenzlick

Although it's not difficult to disconnect (all that's necessary, and given that you are capable of switching the SSD...), Apple view your MBP as having a non-removable battery.

Mac notebooks that have nonremovable batteries include MacBook Pro (Early 2009 and later), all models of MacBook Air, MacBook (Late 2009), and MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015 and later)

>>Since I did the keypress, did I actually do an SMC Reset...?

I don't see why not. Beyond (only sometimes, I gather) the MagSafe light changing color, there's no sound or display associated with it.

If I understand correctly : Internet Recovery works as expected.

Does Apple Diagnostics/Hardware Test run ? .

Is there another bootable external drive that you can try, just to confirm that the MBP runs normally ?. I don't know for sure that Target Disk Mode still allows startup from the Target computer, but it certainly used to. I'm sure that Apple would help you out by testing to see if it starts up from an external or NetBoot.

It sounds as if the NVRAM reset worked, but it then tried to start normally, was there an extra chime ?.

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Answer 5

acwenzlick Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 3, 2017 11:35 AM in response to PN2

Thanks for the feedback. My battery is removable, but I followed your steps anyway, two times total. Both times it seems like it did "something" but the end results were the same: it won't power on. Since my battery is removable, I am under the impression I am to follow this procedure: MacBook Pro 13" Retina Display Late 2013 Battery Replacement - iFixit to get the battery disconnected properly, which is more work than I'm willing to do, especially since it likely doesn't apply to my problem. Since I did the keypress, did I actually do an SMC Reset, did I do anything at all, and if so, what exactly happened?

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Answer 6

acwenzlick Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 3, 2017 2:03 PM in response to PN2

Oh, I did not know that, about the removable battery. Glad I did the keypress reset then, and did not try to take it all apart! I think I tried the keypress once or twice before posting this, but yeah, I only noticed the MagSafe light changing color each time.

On the Internet Recovery, I'm able to get into the interface, but it fails to recover anything.

Apple Diagnostics run, but no errors are reported.

The NVRAM did NOT work. I let it run for almost 10 hours, and after 10 hours it was only halfway done. It was stuck at the halfway mark for almost 9 hours alone, so I turned the computer off. I do wonder if I should give this a try again, and just let it go, even if it takes a day or two.

I have an external drive that I can use, that I was hoping to use to save the files off of this bad M.2 SSD drive. I was also hoping to save an image of the bad M.2 SSD drive to this external drive as well. Are you suggesting I format this external drive, make it bootable, and see if the computer will boot from this external drive? I can definitely give that a try, and that would confirm anything else not being wrong, too.

Thank you again for the help!

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Answer 7

PN2

Level 4

1,052 points

Nov 3, 2017 2:47 PM in response to acwenzlick

The NVRAM reset doesn't sound as if it didn't work to me, more that it wouldn't start up afterwards, just as with a normal startup. If you want to be sure, use Terminal from the Utilities menu in Internet Recovery, and enter the command below.

nvram -c

Reference included so you know what you're really being asked to do 🙂

https://developer.apple.com/legacy/library/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPag es/man8/nvram.8.html

>>Are you suggesting I format this external drive, make it bootable, and see if the computer will boot from this external drive?

Yes, if that's your only option locally to prove that the computer behaves as expected with a working startup disk.

I've seen very occasional reports of a faulty internal interfering with option key startup from external or Target Disk, but if it works, you pretty much know it's just the 'problem' SSD and can concentrate on getting your data from it.

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Answer 8

PN2

Level 4

1,052 points

Nov 1, 2017 11:49 AM in response to acwenzlick

I'd be surprised if Apple offered anything beyond erase/partition/restore from backup.

I've nothing specific on that error code; just an unresolved reddit post.

macos - External HDD (3TB) corrupted - possibly partition table damaged

Covers a similar DIY problem, which was eventually dealt with using TestDisk

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