Mac – Having this weird issue where it’s like the APFS container that I’m booted into is not mounted? (hackintosh)

disk-utilityhackintoshmacpartition

I had this partition setup (I only have one SSD) that was something like this. This is not a direct copy of what it looked like, I am doing it from memory:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   0:    GUID_partition_scheme
   1:         Windows Recovery
   2:                      EFI
   3:     Microsoft Basic Data
   4:               Apple_APFS Container 1

Basically I ended up creating free space between 3 and 4 here, but I couldnt find a way to expand my APFS Container because Disk Utility could not detect the free space at all. If I remember correctly it was about 275GB of free space. I basically created an unformatted partition in the free space (using GParted) and then it appeared in Disk Utility next time I booted.

I started messing around with different strategies, trying to turn it back into free space so I could expand my APFS, but nothing was working. I ended up in this state:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   0:    GUID_partition_scheme
   1:         Windows Recovery
   2:                      EFI
   3:     Microsoft Basic Data
   4:                Apple_HFS

with the typical /dev/disk1 (synthesized): block below, outlining the APFS container that I am booted into.

I am almost 100% certain that this Apple_HFS partition is empty, but I am confused because I am also pretty sure it is the exact same disk label as my APFS container (disk0s4). So much so, that when I use iBoysoft Data Recovery, it gives me the option to recover TWO separate disks after selecting the disk0s4 partition.

I guess I am mainly curious

Is it possible for there to be two partitions with the same diskXsY type of identifier? Or does anyone know how to resolve my issue?

I think my computer should still boot, but I am sort of afraid to shut down just in case I can't. There is no way I could have accidentally deleted my main partition, right? Since I am actively using it right now?

EDIT: If I run first aid on the container it even refers to itself as disk0s4. Could the HFS thing literally BE my Container but it is mislabeled?? It is approximately the same size as well. The only weird thing is my disk is missing like 275GB of space if you run diskutil list

Best Answer

First question, what version/build of OS X are you on? Is FileVaut enabled? Also you say you are booted into /dev/disk1 which is actually the container at disk0s4. If you are making partition changes, it is best you do not do it from the disk you are modifying, especially with a table like this.

APFS from my findings is really unstable still, and while it has some advantages, there are a lot of problems, and when they happen, they are hard to recover from.

Paste the output of diskutil apfs list. Make sure you do a direct copy and paste, not just from memory.

Also, make yourself a recovery drive to boot from when you make any changes, if you can even install a clean copy of Mac onto a USB3 and run it from there so you also can see how things appear in Finder, otherwise just a simple drive using createinstallmedia is fine. Link to the help on that is below.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

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