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HELP! HD locked on reinstall!

F

flashyx

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 1, 2013
3
2
hi lovely peeps!

So I'm stuck, I wanted to start my Mac from scratch with a fresh install of EI Capitan but now my hard drive is locked! Please see the attached images.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/s023l3g3di72hhi/2016-01-17 13.00.51.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fv3ffcyobuxp26j/2016-01-17 13.01.38.jpg?dl=0

So this is what I did to stuff it up...
I rebooted my computer and held down cmd+r
I entered disk utilities and erased the main hard drive and made it for journaled
A failure error occurred mid way through
Most buttons are grayed out now and my hard drive is locked and I have now way of booting back into OS X.

How can I fix this?
 
Last edited:
In Disk Utility should be an unlock option in the File menu. Try that and enter the Password of your user name.
 
I'm not quite sure how you got in this mess, but here is how to fix it. (I am assuming here there is not some underlying hardware issue that got all this started).

Hold command-option-r at boot and select your wifi when asked. Then you will see a spinning globe while the recovery utility downloads and installs. Once that is done you will see the recovery screen. From there launch Terminal from the Utilities menu and enter the line below exactly like I have it, including the quotes. That will blow off the Fusion drive.

Code: 
diskutil cs delete "Fusion Drive"

Now quit Terminal and launch Disk Utility. You should see a screen like this offering to fix the Fusion drive. Go ahead and click Fix to rebuild the Fusion drive.

fusion_drive_disk_error.png


Now quit Disk Utility and click reinstall OS X at the top and wait for it to finish and restart. This will put you on the OS X version that came from the factory. You can update to El Capitan after if you like.

What you are seeing locked there in your second screenshot is the Recovery HD partition, and that is as it should be and not the problem. The problem is you borked the Fusion drive somehow and this will fix it.
 
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Weaselboy said:
I'm not quite sure how you got in this mess, but here is how to fix it. (I am assuming here there is not some underlying hardware issue that got all this started).

Hold command-option-r at boot and select your wifi when asked. Then you will see a spinning globe while the recovery utility downloads and installs. Once that is done you will see the recovery screen. From there launch Terminal from the Utilities menu and enter the line below exactly like I have it, including the quotes. That will blow off the Fusion drive.

Code: 
diskutil cs delete "Fusion Drive"

Now quit Terminal and launch Disk Utility. You should see a screen like this offering to fix the Fusion drive. Go ahead and click Fix to rebuild the Fusion drive.

View attachment 610983

Now quit Disk Utility and click reinstall OS X at the top and wait for it to finish and restart. This will put you on the OS X version that came from the factory. You can update to El Capitan after if you like.

What you are seeing locked there in your second screenshot is the Recovery HD partition, and that is as it should be and not the problem. The problem is you borked the Fusion drive somehow and this will fix it.
Click to expand...
Dude! Thank you so so much for helping me out! I'm so greatful you replied as it worked for me! Apple couldn't even work it out and they wanted me to drive 4 hours to get it fixed!! I really hope this post can help others as it seems to be a common problem out there.

Thanks again!
 
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I'm currently in exactly in the same state with an iMac. I don't have the option of Terminal in Disk Utilities. Also, mine doesn't ask for wifi as it's already plugged into the router.

When I get info. on the Fusion drive (mine says Fusion Drive instead of Mac HD), the answer to all the questions is NO (i.e. Writable... No).
 
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wunnspeed said:
I'm currently in exactly in the same state with an iMac. I don't have the option of Terminal in Disk Utilities. Also, mine doesn't ask for wifi as it's already plugged into the router.

When I get info. on the Fusion drive (mine says Fusion Drive instead of Mac HD), the answer to all the questions is NO (i.e. Writable... No).
Click to expand...

So you are in the recovery screen? From the recovery screen click the Utilities menu up top and you should see Terminal there.
 
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O.K. it took me a bit to figure out exactly which screen was the Recovery screen.

So, I typed in exactly as above in Terminal and it returned the following....
"Fusion Drive does not appear to be a valid Core Storage Logical Volume Group UUID or Name"
[doublepost=1453397916][/doublepost]Interestingly, on Disk Utility, that's almost word for word what it's description is...
Fusion Drive
1.12 TB CoreStorage Logical Volume Group
 
wunnspeed said:
Well, it says a lot. It goes up to disk image 15.

The first three are GUID_partition_scheme (no name)
Then EFI Name EFI

What are you or am I looking for to make it a bit easier?
Click to expand...

There should be a line that looks something like this with the name of the core storage (Fusion) drive. That is the name of the volume you want to delete with that command earlier.

2: Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD 120.5 GB disk0s2
 
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There are two:

2: Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD 121.0 GB disk0s2

2: Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD 999.3 GB disk1s2

Then, after that, there's

1: Apple_HFS OS X Base System 1.3 GB disk2s1


So, I input...

diskutil cs delete disk0s2

Is that correct? I'm just trying not to mess it up any further than I have already.

By the way, thanks for the help.
 
You have something odd going on there. Normally there would be only one core storage volume listed that is the Fusion'd single logical volume.

Run this and tell me what it says. This will show the layout of the core storage volume.

Code: 
diskutil cs list
 
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Okay... this will kill it. The issue is you copied my earlier command with Fusion HD in it. I gave the other user that command because that is what his drive was named. Yours is named Macintosh HD so the command is different.

Code: 
diskutil cs delete "Macintosh HD"
 
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Wow! That worked. Cool and thanks.

Now, for reinstalling OS X, I have three choices... Untitled 999.35 GB/Recovery HD 650.1MB/Untitled 120.99 GB... which do I choose?
[doublepost=1453477954][/doublepost]Just for kicks.... I clicked on the Recovery HD and it said that it's Locked.
[doublepost=1453478019][/doublepost]And the 3rd one, 120.99 GB says it has S.M.A.R.T. errors and can't be repaired. I assume that means that I really need to get it in for a new HD. Correct?
 
wunnspeed said:
And the 3rd one, 120.99 GB says it has S.M.A.R.T. errors and can't be repaired. I assume that means that I really need to get it in for a new HD. Correct?
Click to expand...

Yeah... that sounds like a goner.

Once you get the new drive in you need to get to Internet recovery and start Disk Utility like I showed in my earlier post and it will offer to remake the Fusion drive. After that you will no longer see those two drives to chose from, but only the one Fusion drive.
 
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Weaselboy said:
You have something odd going on there. Normally there would be only one core storage volume listed that is the Fusion'd single logical volume.

Run this and tell me what it says. This will show the layout of the core storage volume.

Code: 
diskutil cs list
Click to expand...
When i do that code for me it says "No CoreStorage logical volume groups found" please help.
 
Weaselboy said:
It just means you don't have a Fusion or Core Storage drive configured and not necessarily that anything is wrong.

Can you explain what problem you are having?
Click to expand...
While trying to reinstall os x both of my hard drive disk are locked, so i wont be able to install it, is there a way to delete both of those Hard drives?
image.jpeg
 
Assuming you don't need any data off the drive, try opening Disk Utility form the recovery screen and go to the erase tab then format Macintosh HD to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then quit Disk Util and try the install.

If that won't work, run the command below in Terminal and tell me what it says.

Code: 
diskutil list
 
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Im not able to install because the second hard drive on the picture is still locked. And,...
image.jpeg
 
Weaselboy said:
I'm not seeing anything wrong there. Once you have command-r booted to recovery can you not select that 499GB Macintosh HD volume as the install target?
Click to expand...
There is no Macintosh HD because it is not in one of the install targets, the only one there are Recovery HD and it is locked.
 

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