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(moved here from StackOverflow) Hi,

the main partition of the (3 y/o) SSD in my old MacBook (2010) appears to be damaged and can't be mounted under Mac OS. I can only boot into recovery mode and mounting the partition fails. However, using a CloneZilla Live USB Terminal I am able to mount and access the main partition. For more (not neccessary!) details please see my error description: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/410028/macbook-main-volume-cant-be-mounted-during-boot

I am trying to reinstall OSX now, but since Mac recovery mode can't mount the partition it is not possible (at the beginning of the installation it simply shows no available partition to install OSX to). Therefore I was trying to format the partition before installing OSX, using the live USB terminal:

sudo mkfs.hfsplus /dev/sda2

The only output I get is Initialized /dev/sda2 as a 223GB HFS Plus volume - but all data is still there and Mac recovery still won't recognize the "formated" partition. Am I doing this correctly?

I have also tried to check the SSD status with smartctl and could not detect any errors (SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED) and also a long smartctl test was completed without errors.

sudo fsck -fy /dev/sda2 shows that the volume appears to be OK. dmesg however shows quite some errors of type Buffer I/O error on dev sda2, logical block xy, lost async page write.

So I think that the partition is somehow broken, and thought that trying to format it and reinstall OSX might be a good first try, before changing the physical SSD to a new one. Why doesn't formatting with mkfs work? What could I try next?

UPDATE 1 I have disassembled the SSD from the case and attached it via an external Icy Box hard drive enclosure, which I connected via USB. When trying to boot from this "external" drive, the same error occurs. Therefore I think I can rule out a broken SATA cable, which was suggested in the comments.

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  • Replace the SATA cable.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 8:40
  • Thanks for the tip! It seems that the 2012 MacBook Pro had an issue with the cable, but that's not my 2009/10 white unibody. However, I couldn't find any link between my error messages and a broken SATA cable. So before I try to buy a new one - could you explain a little more why you think this could help?
    – zaddo
    Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 9:51
  • SATA working at <100% can give so many random intermittent errors that you can end up chasing your own tail for a month. (I've done it, it's not fun;) Adding the info from your previous question to this one makes me feel that's a good amount of 'random' going on. For the cost of a new cable you would at least then be on an even footing no matter what the issue does turn out to be. If it is the cable, any 'fixes' you try to apply will not be doing what you think they should.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 9:57
  • Thanks for the explaination, I'll give it a try. Besides that: are my approach how to format the partition (mkfs.hfsplus) and my expectation of the outcome (an "empty" partition) correct? So, does this add up to the amount of 'random'?
    – zaddo
    Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 10:06
  • I'm not that great with Terminal, sorry, so I'm unlikely to spot any errors in your method. anything that gives any kind of i/o error, though is definitely one of the signs of a dodgy cable.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 10:15

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To conclude so far: SATA cable was not damaged, I came to the conclusion that the SSD itself is broken. Even GParted was also not able to format the partition, I failed to repair it. Therefore I have just replaced the SSD with a new one. Luckily I was able to save most of the data, since the partition could still be accessed from a Linux system.

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