Big mistake with diskutil

[dgs57]

I assembled and configured my MSI Z490A-i5 / 12400-Rx580 Hack with OC 0.8.0 also thanks to the help of NorthAmTransAm with its excellent and detailed golden build.
I did a further fine tuning to the configuration of my EFI, first on the USB stick, and since everything worked I tried to replace the EFI of the MacOs SSD with that of the USB stick.
The system showed the "not enough space" warning even after deleting the old EFI, so I thought about using Diskutil in Recovery Mode to reformat the EFI partition.
I got distracted and instead of saying "diskutil reformat / dev / disk4s2" I just wrote "diskutil reformat disk4s2".
By doing so, the system EFI has disappeared or rather it is there but it is no longer usable for booting.
I ask the experts on the forum: is it possible to fix the problem somehow or do I have to install Monterey from scratch?

 

[UtterDisbelief]

I assembled and configured my MSI Z490A-i5 / 12400-Rx580 Hack with OC 0.8.0 also thanks to the help of NorthAmTransAm with its excellent and detailed golden build.
I did a further fine tuning to the configuration of my EFI, first on the USB stick, and since everything worked I tried to replace the EFI of the MacOs SSD with that of the USB stick.
The system showed the "not enough space" warning even after deleting the old EFI, so I thought about using Diskutil in Recovery Mode to reformat the EFI partition.
I got distracted and instead of saying "diskutil reformat / dev / disk4s2" I just wrote "diskutil reformat disk4s2".
By doing so, the system EFI has disappeared or rather it is there but it is no longer usable for booting.
I ask the experts on the forum: is it possible to fix the problem somehow or do I have to install Monterey from scratch?

Hi there.

I think the problem might be that your EFI folder was actually at "disk4s1" not 2. Disk4s2 would be the main drive area.

 

[dgs57]

Hi there.

I think the problem might be that your EFI folder was actually at "disk4s1" not 2. Disk4s2 would be the main drive area.

Hello,
i agree with you, i only described the mistake i made.
Now wanting, if possible, to fix things with the command diskutil mountDisk4 I can mount the entire disk 4 but then what should I do?
By booting with the USB stick everything works regularly (OC 0.8.1)
Thanks

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Hello,
i agree with you, i only described the mistake i made.
Now wanting, if possible, to fix things with the command diskutil mountDisk4 I can mount the entire disk 4 but then what should I do?
By booting with the USB stick everything works regularly (OC 0.8.1)
Thanks

diskutil is showing that Disk4s1 is of the correct size for an EFI.

You have to take into account that the main data area on Disk4 is actually an APFS synthesized Disk6.

If everything works okay booting from your USB drive, then copy that USB EFI into place in Disk4s1. If the format of Disk4s1 is not MS-DOS/FAT32 then you will have to reformat it.

 

[dgs57]

diskutil is showing that Disk4s1 is of the correct size for an EFI.

You have to take into account that the main data area on Disk4 is actually an APFS synthesized Disk6.

If everything works okay booting from your USB drive, then copy that USB EFI into place in Disk4s1. If the format of Disk4s1 is not MS-DOS/FAT32 then you will have to reformat it.

Hello UtterDisbelief,
thanks to your instructions I was able to boot directly from MacOs SSD, after copying the EFI from the USB stick.
I had to format the EFI of the disk / dev / disk4s1 through Windows 11 because UtilityDisk of the Mac does not choose Fat32 but only Ms-Dos or exFat.
The system now works perfectly only that Hackintool v.3.8.7 no longer sees the Mac system disk (EFI-SAM-88F is Win 11) and the report of all connected disks shows the EFI (used for boot) as if it were permanently mounted.
Is it possible to fix this anomaly in some way?
Thanks again for your support.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Hello UtterDisbelief,
thanks to your instructions I was able to boot directly from MacOs SSD, after copying the EFI from the USB stick.
I had to format the EFI of the disk / dev / disk4s1 through Windows 11 because UtilityDisk of the Mac does not choose Fat32 but only Ms-Dos or exFat.
The system now works perfectly only that Hackintool v.3.8.7 no longer sees the Mac system disk (EFI-SAM-88F is Win 11) and the report of all connected disks shows the EFI (used for boot) as if it were permanently mounted.
Is it possible to fix this anomaly in some way?
Thanks again for your support.

Glad to hear your system is now booting okay.

There are a couple of confusing issues in the screengrabs you've posted.

You have two EFI folders - that will always cause the system confusion (disk0s2 and disk2s1). Also disk4s1 now appears to be a Windows Seagate drive?

If a Windows system has been installed before a macOS one, this will cause problems. macOS needs to be the first booting system.

Frankly, I think Hackintool is becoming confused by the shear number of different drives it is seeing. I would disconnect all but the macOS drive while you are setting-up the system.

 

[dgs57]

Glad to hear your system is now booting okay.

There are a couple of confusing issues in the screengrabs you've posted.

You have two EFI folders - that will always cause the system confusion (disk0s2 and disk2s1). Also disk4s1 now appears to be a Windows Seagate drive?

If a Windows system has been installed before a macOS one, this will cause problems. macOS needs to be the first booting system.

Frankly, I think Hackintool is becoming confused by the shear number of different drives it is seeing. I would disconnect all but the macOS drive while you are setting-up the system.

Hello,
after your last post last month to avoid problems I have not modified the EFI disks.
The system works perfectly with both MacOs and Win11 with dual boot which is great.
I updated OC to 0.8.2 and Monterey to the latest beta with a smooth and automatic procedure without any intervention.
It's just that the MacOs EFI partition (disk2s1) is permanently mounted and external not connected and incorporated with disk4 (reported as physical store disk2s2).
So I can use the pc normally but, for the best of it, I'd like to set the correct disk order.
Can you suggest me a command, if possible, via terminal with diskutil or other to properly fix the disk setting with MacOs Monterey?
I, out of prudence, dare not!

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Hello,
after your last post last month to avoid problems I have not modified the EFI disks.
The system works perfectly with both MacOs and Win11 with dual boot which is great.
I updated OC to 0.8.2 and Monterey to the latest beta with a smooth and automatic procedure without any intervention.
It's just that the MacOs EFI partition (disk2s1) is permanently mounted and external not connected and incorporated with disk4 (reported as physical store disk2s2).
So I can use the pc normally but, for the best of it, I'd like to set the correct disk order.
Can you suggest me a command, if possible, via terminal with diskutil or other to properly fix the disk setting with MacOs Monterey?
I, out of prudence, dare not!

Glad everything is working okay, despite the disk2s1 issue.

The problem is caused by the Windows boot drive EFI being at disk0s2, numerically before the disk2s1 macOS EFI.
Chances are, if you boot disk2s1 then disk0s2 will simply be seen as a visible 314MB FAT32 drive.

Like you, if the system works I would be very wary of changing anything. No, a Terminal command won't do the job. Without having a similar system myself I would have to guess - but to correct the disk order you would probably have to physically swap the SATA connectors around. Or, of course, re-install everything starting with macOS first. (Neither of these are recommended!)