tillkrueger Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 After contacting a very capable unRAID forum member privately, he suggested to me to post here. Before I move on to try a few more things, let me post the current status of the dilemma I find myself in...the bottomline question of this long-a** post, I guess, is: > how can I get this mSATA card back to "factory status" and then clone my internal mSATA card to this external mSATA card successfully? And here comes the long version... I am hoping that some could help me with his/her knowledge of the command line and figuring out what's happening "under the hood". I purchased a "used, like new, never used" (but "no returns") EVO 850 1TB mSATA SSD off eBay a few days ago, to try to upgrade from my 500GB internal SSD in my mid-2012 Retina MacBook Pro. I had done this, previously, with a 1TB upgrade kit from OWC, which ran smooth as can be...a simple "restore" of the internal to the external SSD (it came with its own enclosure) through macOS Disk Utility did the trick, then physically swap the cards, done...but for reasons that would take too long to explain, I had to go back to the original 500GB card, which is now at the point of being simply too small. But with this Samsung EVO 850 1TB card (which I placed into an mSATA to USB3 enclosure) when I tried to create the second partition (for Bootcamp), it refused from the start to be repartitioned...I think it complained about a GPT partition scheme, but not sure now...wish I had kept track of everything I tried in Terminal. After almost 3 days of head-scratching and online research, I came across the bits and pieces that I hoped would allow me to "nuke" the partition table and create an exact bit-for-bit clone of my internal SSD, using the dd command...when I started the dd command yesterday, following some instructions I found online, everything looked like it was doing what it was supposed to...after almost 4hrs of watching the blue read/write access LED blink on my external enclosure, I called it a night and when I woke up this morning I saw that Terminal had "successfully" written what seemed like the correct amount of data to the external SSD in the enclosure. While hoping that I'd now finding an identical 2 partition external drive, looking at Disk Utility, however, showed the picture I attached (and what I am now seeing is different than what I saw before the last reboot, when the "macOS" drive that is now shown under "External" was still showing above the "Win10" volume in "Internal"). For what it's worth, I made a copy of the Terminal session that led to where I am right now, and maybe I did something totally incorrectly, due to just copying from someone else's solution online, but I wonder whether it could be that the SSD I got off eBay could have arrived "broken"? is there such a thing with an SSD of this kind, that it s so messed up that it cannot be put back into its factory condition? Here is the Terminal session: Last login: Fri Mar 9 17:32:03 on ttys000 rMBP-Till:~ till$ diskutil list /dev/disk0 (internal, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.3 GB disk0 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1 2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 420.0 GB disk0s2 3: Microsoft Basic Data Win10 80.1 GB disk0s3 /dev/disk1 (synthesized): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: APFS Container Scheme - +420.0 GB disk1 Physical Store disk0s2 1: APFS Volume macOS 261.7 GB disk1s1 2: APFS Volume Preboot 40.9 MB disk1s2 3: APFS Volume Recovery 1.0 GB disk1s3 4: APFS Volume VM 33.3 GB disk1s4 /dev/disk2 (external, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *4.0 TB disk2 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1 2: Apple_HFS VAULT 4.0 TB disk2s2 /dev/disk3 (external, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: FDisk_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk3 1: Apple_HFS macOS 1.0 TB disk3s1 /dev/disk4 (disk image): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: Apple_partition_scheme +52.4 MB disk4 1: Apple_partition_map 32.3 KB disk4s1 2: Apple_HFS CopyCatX™ v.5.2.0.3.... 52.3 MB disk4s2 rMBP-Till:~ till$ sudo gdisk /dev/disk3 Password: GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.3 Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their partition table automatically reloaded! Partition table scan: MBR: MBR only BSD: not present APM: not present GPT: not present *************************************************************** Found invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format in memory. THIS OPERATION IS POTENTIALLY DESTRUCTIVE! Exit by typing 'q' if you don't want to convert your MBR partitions to GPT format! *************************************************************** Command (? for help): p Disk /dev/disk3: 1953525168 sectors, 931.5 GiB Sector size (logical): 512 bytes Disk identifier (GUID): 105AEE0E-02F2-4FDB-9A13-5E9BE48C8F96 Partition table holds up to 128 entries Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33 First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1953525134 Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries Total free space is 5036 sectors (2.5 MiB) Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name 1 2048 1953522112 931.5 GiB AF00 Apple HFS/HFS+ Command (? for help): x Expert command (? for help): n Expert command (? for help): w Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING PARTITIONS!! Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/disk3. Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their partition table automatically reloaded! Warning: The kernel may continue to use old or deleted partitions. You should reboot or remove the drive. The operation has completed successfully. rMBP-Till:~ till$ sudo gdisk /dev/disk3 GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.3 Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their partition table automatically reloaded! Partition table scan: MBR: protective BSD: not present APM: not present GPT: present Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT. Command (? for help): diskutil list Using 1 Command (? for help): q rMBP-Till:~ till$ diskutil list /dev/disk0 (internal, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.3 GB disk0 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1 2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 420.0 GB disk0s2 3: Microsoft Basic Data Win10 80.1 GB disk0s3 /dev/disk1 (synthesized): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: APFS Container Scheme - +420.0 GB disk1 Physical Store disk0s2 1: APFS Volume macOS 261.7 GB disk1s1 2: APFS Volume Preboot 40.9 MB disk1s2 3: APFS Volume Recovery 1.0 GB disk1s3 4: APFS Volume VM 32.2 GB disk1s4 /dev/disk2 (external, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *4.0 TB disk2 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1 2: Apple_HFS VAULT 4.0 TB disk2s2 /dev/disk3 (external, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk3 1: Apple_HFS macOS 1.0 TB disk3s1 rMBP-Till:~ till$ dd if=/dev/disk0 of=/dev/disk3 conv=notrunc dd: /dev/disk0: Permission denied rMBP-Till:~ till$ sudo dd if=/dev/disk0 of=/dev/disk3 conv=notrunc Password: dd: /dev/disk3: Resource busy rMBP-Till:~ till$ sudo dd if=/dev/disk0 of=/dev/disk3 conv=notrunc 977105060+0 records in 977105060+0 records out 500277790720 bytes transferred in 26210.765860 secs (19086729 bytes/sec) rMBP-Till:~ till$ diskutil list /dev/disk0 (internal, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.3 GB disk0 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1 2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 420.0 GB disk0s2 3: Microsoft Basic Data Win10 80.1 GB disk0s3 /dev/disk1 (synthesized): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: APFS Container Scheme - +420.0 GB disk1 Physical Store disk0s2 1: APFS Volume macOS 262.2 GB disk1s1 2: APFS Volume Preboot 40.9 MB disk1s2 3: APFS Volume Recovery 1.0 GB disk1s3 4: APFS Volume VM 29.0 GB disk1s4 /dev/disk2 (external, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *4.0 TB disk2 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1 2: Apple_HFS VAULT 4.0 TB disk2s2 /dev/disk3 (external, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk3 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1 2: Apple_APFS Container disk5 420.0 GB disk3s2 3: Microsoft Basic Data Win10 80.1 GB disk3s3 Quote Link to comment
tillkrueger Posted March 10, 2018 Author Share Posted March 10, 2018 I just don't get it...I just went into my Windows 10 Bootcamp partition, then deleted all partitions of the mSATA card from there, then booted into my macOS Recovery HD volume, created a single 1TB APFS volume with an Apple Partition Scheme, booted into macOS and tried to use the "Restore" function to clone my internal 500GB SATA card to the external 1TB mSATA card...but it immediately threw an error and left me with a greyed-out "APFS Physical Store disk2s2" disk that I can't mount...if I unplug and replug it, it complains that it must be initialised, which it will also fail to do when I agree to it. using Terminal, I get this: rMBP-Till:~ till$ diskutil mountDisk disk2 Volume(s) mounted successfully rMBP-Till:~ till$ diskutil list /dev/disk0 (internal, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.3 GB disk0 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1 2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 420.0 GB disk0s2 3: Microsoft Basic Data Win10 80.1 GB disk0s3 /dev/disk1 (synthesized): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: APFS Container Scheme - +420.0 GB disk1 Physical Store disk0s2 1: APFS Volume macOS 265.8 GB disk1s1 2: APFS Volume Preboot 40.9 MB disk1s2 3: APFS Volume Recovery 1.0 GB disk1s3 4: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk1s4 /dev/disk2 (external, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: Apple_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk2 1: Apple_partition_map 32.3 KB disk2s1 2: Apple_APFS 1.0 TB disk2s2 why is this mSATA card being so stubborn, or am I totally doing the wrong thing? Quote Link to comment
tillkrueger Posted March 11, 2018 Author Share Posted March 11, 2018 ok, so in the meantime I kept looking for answers in various Forums and found some Terminal instructions for writing a new GUID partition table to the mSATA drive, which then allowed me to create and format a volume..I now wish I had figured out how to make that an Apple Partition Table (more about that below). the Terminal commands I then used when booted back into macOS, in a nutshell, were: > diskutil list (my mSATA drive is drive2) > diskutil unmountDisk force disk2 > diskutil partitionDisk disk2 GPT JHFS+ "Elements" 0g I had hoped, from the start, that I might be able to do a block-level clone of the internal SSD drive to the external mSATA card, but when I first tried that to do that in Disk Util, it somehow messed up my partition table again and I had to start from scratch...so after finally being able to boot into macOS and Disk Utility allowing me to actually restore an image to the new volume, I restored a fresh backup of my internal SSD to my external mSATA, started my MBP with Option held down, and booted successfully from the external mSATA card. I then proceeded to open up my MBP, and swap out the 500GB SSD for the 1TB mSATA (with an adapter from mSATA to the Apple SSD pinout), tried to boot up the MBP again, but it isn't booting...just a black screen for a few minutes and then white PC-type writing about no boot disk being present and hit any key...my GUID partition scheme does have an EFI partition, so shouldn't it be able to handle the booting? or is that not possible with a GUID scheme? oh, and since all of this was done on an external mSATA device, it was formatted as HFS+...I'll have to do the conversion to APFS as well, now that it is the boot SSD, right? well, so after all this work (another day just melted away), my question now is: is there a way to change the partition scheme to Apple, and create a boot EFI in the process, *without* having to start from scratch? At no stage of all that I did in Disk Utility I got the option to choose a partition scheme, and I didn't have the knowledge to do so when using Terminal commands to just make that mSATA card work and be recognised by Disk Utility as a valid destination for a Restore operation...but I really, really don't wanna start from scratch. anyone know of a way? some clever Terminal command? the status right now: rMBP-Till:~ till$ diskutil list /dev/disk0 (internal, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1 2: Apple_HFS macOS-1TB 999.2 GB disk0s2 3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3 rMBP-Till:~ till$ sudo gdisk /dev/disk0 Password: GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.3 Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their partition table automatically reloaded! Partition table scan: MBR: protective BSD: not present APM: not present GPT: present Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT. Quote Link to comment
Jcloud Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 I'll show this to a co-worker (our main Apple certified tech) on Monday, and see if he has any ideas for you. I haven't been Apple certified for a few years so can't really say about the new APFS. 13 hours ago, tillkrueger said: But with this Samsung EVO 850 1TB card (which I placed into an mSATA to USB3 enclosure) when I tried to create the second partition (for Bootcamp), it refused from the start to be repartitioned... I think, default behavior, Bootcamp won't allow the partition to be made on an external device. My two cents for now, I'll try and send you a few wooden nickels Monday. Good luck in mean time. 1 Quote Link to comment
tillkrueger Posted March 11, 2018 Author Share Posted March 11, 2018 Thanks so much, Jcloud, for asking your colleague. I hope there is a way, using the gdisk command, but I'd be surprised if there isn't. Quote Link to comment
tillkrueger Posted March 11, 2018 Author Share Posted March 11, 2018 whaddaya know...I posted in the MacRumors forum where someone told me that my Apple Partition Map theory was wrong (deprecated after the PowerPC to Intel switch) and that the GUID map I have was the correct one...he suggested that I reinstall macOS on top of my current install, which I did from Recovery's "Install macOS" option, and when it was all finished it booted into macOS without having to hold down the Option key. phew! after 3 days of head-scratching, I am finally upgraded to a 1TB internal mSATA "drive"! 1 Quote Link to comment
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