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I am new in the internet forums. I apologize in advance.

I believe I have a similar problem than the one described in second_step, since I am coming from a removal of Ubuntu dual boot. But the difference is that I don't want to loose any data and I'm not sure if this is the case of the above link.

I have a Macbook Pro and the partition where I have all my personal data cannot be mounted. That is the disk0s2 with 461.8GB. In fact, it does not appear in the Disk Utility of the Recovery Mode.

After following the strategy described in first_step, I realized about the FFFF... issue on disk0s2 and I succeeded to remove the FFFF... by changing its type to CoreStorage type of partition according to the non-zeros at the beginning of the partition, as mentioned in the above strategy.

The current partitions map is as follows:

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After inspecting the bytes at the beginning of disk0s2 partition, I spotted NXSB sequence which is meant to define an APFS partition. Therefore, my first failure was to convert disk0s2 to CoreStorage instead of APFS.

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Unfortunately, the disk0s2 partition still does not appear in the Disk Utility application of the recovery mode.

Then, just to try, the recovery mode allowed me to install OS X Mountain Lion 10.8. in the partition named "bigpart". Now I have a working an OSX in the "bigpart" partition. I presume the 10.8 is the factory version. Once logged in, I'm going to the Disk Utility and I still don't see the partition of my personal data disk0s2. The installation of OSX in "bigpart" partition could have been my second failure.

I would appreciate so much any help in order to not loose my personal data in disk0s2.

I have upgraded from Mountain Lion (which was in disk0s4 "bigpart") to El Capitan. In order to taggle APFS I need to be, as far as I know, on High Sierra or beyond. Another problem has raised: I don't have enough space in disk0s4 to upgrade MacOS to High Sierra or beyond. Neither High Sierra nor Catalina can be fully downloaded. I'm wondering if somehow I can take advantage of disk0s3 and merge it with disk0s4, in order to increase the size of disk0s4 in 7.9GB extra coming from disk0s3. I don't care about disk0s3, in fact it is empty. This should be enough since I'm lacking just a bit of space for the installation of Catalina. The diskutil list current outcome after upgrading to El Capitan is as follows. Different than before, since now disk0s4 has become Apple_CoreStorage type.

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xbs
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  • That slice you’re referring to is just allocated space for a core storage volume group. Its not a formatted partition, so it can’t be mounted. But, what exactly is the question? – Allan May 06 '20 at 04:24
  • Hi @Allan, I have a lot of personal data in that disk0s2 partition, and I don't know how to access to it. Maybe the type of partition should be another one in order to be mounted. But my data is there, I hope, and I don't know how to proceed. I followed the approach in first_step in order to understand if the FFFF former labeled partition was Standard or Core. – xbs May 06 '20 at 04:32
  • I don’t think you applied the correct instructions because the “first part” doesn't reference CoreStorage which is a technology to create Fusion drives. Which Mac do you have because I’m only seeing one internal drive? Meaning you shouldn’t be using CoreStorage. – Allan May 06 '20 at 04:50
  • @Allan, my Mac is from 2014 more or less. Is there way to give you a better answer about this question? I have added, in the question, a picture of the content at the beginning of disk0s2 partition. – xbs May 06 '20 at 04:53
  • MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, etc? I see your partition. Im trying to figure if it was there previously like it would have been on an iMac or MacPro or something you added after the fact on something with a single drive like a MacBook – Allan May 06 '20 at 04:58
  • @Allan, MacBook Pro (laptop). The recovery allows to install OS X Mountain Lion 10.8. This is what I did in the partition named "bigpart". – xbs May 06 '20 at 04:58
  • Then I don’t see how your data was there previously. I could be wrong, which is why I’m not posting an answer, but I think your data is gone. – Allan May 06 '20 at 05:02
  • Somehow I remember that 461.8GB partition with a name "Macintosh HD". Then came the issue with the removal of Ubuntu dual boot and that partition was renamed as FFFFFF. – xbs May 06 '20 at 05:05
  • Maybe I should change the partition type to Apple_HFS, but I don't know how and don't know if in the hypothesis that data is still there, if it will be lost in the procedure to convert to Apple_HFS. – xbs May 06 '20 at 05:13
  • That sounds more correct, but now that you’ve got two additional partitions formatted as HSF+ (bigpart and smallpart)means things were over written. One thing is to repartition...its another to wipe it clean with a new FS. I don’t want to attempt anything because you have a much higher chance of losing (more) data. – Allan May 06 '20 at 05:19
  • I added a picture at the end of the question, in case it helps. – xbs May 06 '20 at 05:30
  • Looking at the bytes of the disk0s2 screenshot in the Question, I see the sequence NXSB, which according to other questions means that was an APFS partition. Therefore, I failed when I converted it to CoreStorage since it was APFS. – xbs May 06 '20 at 06:19
  • You are correct, disk0s2 is an APFS partition. Also, the data you posted indicates the partition is the correct size. A word of caution. If you are booted to Mountain Lion or Mountain Lion Recovery, then you can not mount APFS partitions, because this version of OS X is to old to recognize APFS. – David Anderson May 06 '20 at 10:27
  • Thanks @David Anderson. Should I then upgrade to El Capitan and then go on for next upgrades? Looking at this link – xbs May 06 '20 at 10:29
  • I am not sure what you have done so far. What did you mean when you posted the statement "I failed when I converted it to CoreStorage since it was APFS"? Also, I assume disk0s2 was bootable before you deleted Ubuntu? – David Anderson May 06 '20 at 10:34
  • I wanted to mean that based on the NXSB sequence, I should have had converted the FFFF partition to APFS instead of converting it to CoreStorage. The aim was to get rid of the FFFF issue. And yes, before deleting Ubuntu, it was bootable. Unfortunately I don't know much about what I'm talking about. – xbs May 06 '20 at 10:36
  • Changing the partition type does not convert the data in the partition unless the partition mounts. I assume this did not happen since the partition is not Core Storage. Since you now know the partition type is APFS, then why not change the type from 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC to 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC. If all goes well, you should be able boot from disk0s2. – David Anderson May 06 '20 at 10:41
  • Ok. Shall I try then the following code without upgrading to El Capitan and from the Recovery Mode? I'm not expert, but I start to understand how is this working. ///// diskutil umountDisk disk0 ////// gpt remove -i 2 disk0 ////// gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 901987992 -t 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0 – xbs May 06 '20 at 10:51
  • I could have posted instructions, but you have done this once already when you changed the type to Core Storage. This time change the type to APFS. What you posted in your previous comment looks correct. – David Anderson May 06 '20 at 10:55
  • @David Anderson, before cleaning Ubuntu, my Mac was updated to OS Catalina. But that OS I'm not sure where it was installed. I would bet it was installed on the disk0s2, the partition under discussion. Partitions disk0s3 and disk0s4 were for Ubuntu. Now, in disk0s4 is where I have the OS Mountain Lion 10.8, which is the factory OS of my MacBook and the only OS bootable. – xbs May 06 '20 at 11:21
  • I assume you changed the partition type to 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC, then restarted the Mac while holding down the option key. If the Catalina partition did not appear in the Mac Startup Manager, then I suppose you might as well upgrade from Mountain Lion to El Capitan, then to Catalina. – David Anderson May 06 '20 at 11:32
  • I have run the commands and nothing has changed. Running /// diskutil list //// still shows disk0s2 as Apple_CoreStorage. The Catalina partition does not appear as bootable partition when restarting holding down the Option key. I'm going to run the OS upgrades of the Mountain Lion. – xbs May 06 '20 at 11:56
  • @DavidAnderson, I have upgraded from Mountain Lion (which was in disk0s4 "bigpart") to El Capitan. In order to taggle APFS I need to be, as far as I know, on High Sierra or beyond. I don't have enough space in disk0s4 to upgrade to High Sierra or beyond. I'm wondering if I can take advantage of disk0s3 and merge it with disk0s4, to increase the size of disk0s4 in 7.9GB extra coming from disk0s3. I don't care about disk0s3, in fact it is empty. I updated the info at the end of the Question in order to show current diskutil list. There have been automatic changes during/after the upgrade. – xbs May 06 '20 at 17:03
  • Well, disk0s2 is still a Core Storage type and you do not have enough space to upgrade any further. It would seem I am not helping. You should seek someone more qualified than me. – David Anderson May 06 '20 at 21:58
  • Hi @DavidAnderson, I have solved everything and made a backup of all my personal data stored in disk0s2 into a USB external drive. Following from the end of my Question, since no way to increase the space in disk0s4 with the available space in disk0s3 due to El Capitan lack of APFS capabilities (disk0s3 was APFS and disk0s4 had El Capitan), I decided to boot in Recovery Mode through Internet. This is command+option+r. Then with the Disk Utility of the Recovery Mode I erased all the content of disk0s4 and formatted it in APFS. – xbs May 07 '20 at 18:12
  • I installed Catalina in disk0s4 from Internet, still in the Recovery Mode. Once finished, I boot again but now with command+r and I opened the terminal. I ran the commands you told me, confirmed in previous comments, in order to convert disk0s2 from CoreStorage to APFS. After some trials, because of Resource Busy message in the terminal, disk0s2 became APFS. Then I boot while holding down option key and I was able to chose between OS Catalina of disk0s4 and the former lost OS Catalina of disk0s2. I chose disk0s2 and once logged in with the user I could copy all my data. All was still there. – xbs May 07 '20 at 18:12
  • @DavidAnderson, thanks for everything since I could recover all my personal data. That was my only aim. Now I have a mess of disk containers, two OS Catalina and several partitions around there. I would like to restore all that mess as factory but this will be another Question. – xbs May 07 '20 at 18:30
  • What is important is that you solved your problem. Thanks for posting you were able to recover your personal data. – David Anderson May 08 '20 at 03:13

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