Fix Corrupted macOS Partition After GParted

disk-utilitydual-bootmacospartitionunix

I followed a tutorial to create dual boot with macOS Sierra 10.12 and Kali-Linux 2.0.

I created a bootable USB drive and booted on a Kali-Linux live session in order to use GParted and resize my macOS Partition.

I selected the macOS partition and resized it from 239 GB to 200 GB. I got 2 partitions, with the 39 GB partition formatted to "unallocated".

But now when I try to boot to macOS, I get the Apple logo then a white cross and can't boot to macOS.

I tried to boot in Recovery HD by holding cmdR, then I tried to use S.O.S. but it says I need an Assistant recovery disk. We can create a USB recovery disk by plugging in a USB drive to our MacBook then use the assistant to create a bootable USB drive which can repair disks, but like I said my MacBook can't boot on macOS, so I can't create it…
Is there a way to download the iso of the recovery USB drive directly to create my own recovery USB drive from it?

I read somewhere that I need to rewrite the corrects boot codes and my data isn't lost. Is that true?

What do you think I can do?

Edit:
Here is the output of diskutil/gpt:

(Sorry for the low compression rate I haven't 10 reputation to post more than 2 pics)

I didn't expect the result of Diskutil. So much partition is normal ?

Edit2:

Here is the other screen I had after write commands :

Edit 3

Best Answer

GParted didn't really create unallocated disk space. Instead the MBR got bogus. The CoreStorage LVG and all subsequent containers got corrupted also, because the whole stack wasn't resized as required. Usually - in macOS - the whole stack is resized with the command diskutil cs resizeStack .... As far as I can say from remote, the ending boundary of the second partition was simply moved to lower block numbers which usually works with normal HFS+ volumes in GParted but not in this case with a CoreStorage stack. Fortunately some invisible data structures of the CS stack weren't overwritten.

Additionally the recovery partition wasn't moved properly. But this a different problem.

Instead of the MBR you should have a pMBR. After removing the bogus MBR you have to destroy and recreate the GUID partition table:

Boot to Internet Recovery Mode
Open Terminal in the menubar Utilities -> Terminal
Get an overview (especially the gpt command is important!):
```
diskutil list
gpt -r show disk0
```
Unmount disk0:
```
diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
```

Delete the MBR:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk0 bs=512 count=1

Destroy the GUID partition table and create a new one (this also creates a fresh pMBR):
```
gpt destroy disk0
gpt create -f disk0
```

Rebuild all previous GUID partitions:

gpt add -i 1 -b 40 -s 409600 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B disk0
gpt add -i 3 -b 488965176 -s 1269536 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0
gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 409602008 -t 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0

If you get a resource busy error after one of the steps, just unmount disk0 again with

diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0

Check the disk with diskutil verifyDisk disk0 afterwards.

Enter diskutil cs list and check if all four CoreStorage containers appear: a Logical Volume Group, a Physical Volume and Logical Volume Family and a Logical Volume.

With the UUID of the Logical Volume mount the LV:

Example:

    +-> Logical Volume 9A7B21AA-F9FE-4E65-8C7E-ED2A73744C15
        ---------------------------------------------------
        Disk:                  disk17
        Status:                Online

Then use:

diskutil mount 9A7B21AA-F9FE-4E65-8C7E-ED2A73744C15

Then after getting the disk identifier of the mounted LV with diskutil list verify the volume:

diskutil verifyVolume disk17 # probably it's disk17, disk16 or disk18

Below I assume the disk identifier is disk17

If the Logical Volume Family and the Logical Volume don't appear try the following:

Boot to Internet Recovery Mode
Open Terminal in the menubar Utilities -> Terminal
Get an overview (especially the gpt command is important!):
```
diskutil list
gpt -r show disk0
```
Unmount disk0:
```
diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk0
```
Remove the current partition entry for the second partition:
```
gpt remove -i 2 disk0
```

Add a new "expanded" second partition entry:

gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 488555536 -t 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0

Then repeat all verify steps:

Check the disk with diskutil verifyDisk disk0 afterwards.

Enter diskutil cs list and check if all four CoreStorage containers appear: a Logical Volume Group, a Physical Volume and Logical Volume Family and a Logical Volume.

With the UUID of the Logical Volume mount the LV:

Example:
```
    +-> Logical Volume 9A7B21AA-F9FE-4E65-8C7E-ED2A73744C15
        ---------------------------------------------------
        Disk:                  disk17
        Status:                Online
```
Then use:
```
diskutil mount 9A7B21AA-F9FE-4E65-8C7E-ED2A73744C15
```
Then after getting the disk identifier of the mounted LV with diskutil list verify the volume:
```
diskutil verifyVolume disk17 # probably it's disk16, disk17 or disk18
```
If you get errors backup the data or the whole partition to an external volume then repair the volume with diskutil repairVolume disk17.

One possibility to backup the data is dd. Attach a HFS+ formatted drive with at least 250 GB free space. Get the path to the external volume with ls /Volumes. Then unmount disk17 and disk0 with diskutil umountDisk disk17 and diskutil umountDisk disk0.

Then clone the partition to a file:
```
dd if=/dev/disk0s2 of=/Volumes/ExternalDriveName/disk0s2.rawdevice bs=4m
```
If the volume name contains spaces, escape the spaces with backslashes: ...of=/Volumes/ExternalDriveName\ With\ Spaces/disk0s2.rawdevice....

You can also use asr to restore the partition to another disk (as a temporary "backup"). Check man asr.

Related Solutions

USB Unix MacOS – Installing Dual Boot Sierra and Kali-Linux

I have managed to get Kali Linux running from USB with persistence, on a Macbook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) with macOS Sierra.

Here's my guide explaining the process I used. I've tried to make it easy to follow, whilst still being as detailed as possible.

Part 1: Preparing the USB

Note: if you don't want persistence, just create 1 partition and finish the guide at part 3.

Open disk utility (Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility).
Select your USB device.
Choose erase.
Name: Untitled | Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) | Scheme: GUID Partition Map.
Click done.
Select your newly formatted USB device.
Choose partition.
Click the "+" symbol at the bottom of the window.
Name (left partition): Persistence | Name (right partition): Kali Linux.
Format (both partitions): MS-DOS (FAT).
Click apply.
Click partition.

After this process, your partitions (Kali Linux and Persistence) may have renamed themselves to "K L" and "P" respectively. If this does happen, simply rename them, and follow the rest of this guide.

Part 2: Installation

Download your ISO of choice (I have tested this with Kali Linux full).
Drag the ISO file to your desktop.
Rename to "boot.iso".
Download the following EFI files: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49525238/efi.zip
Extract the "efi.zip" file to desktop.
Drag "boot.iso" to efi > boot.
You should now have the following files contained within efi > boot: boot.efi, boot.iso, bootX64.efi, enterprise.cfg.
Copy the efi folder to the root of the Kali Linux partition on the USB drive.

Part 3: Booting Kali Linux

Restart your machine.
Hold the option key (alt) as soon as you hear the chime.
Follow the onscreen options (for me I press the "1" key twice, and then it boots).
After a few minutes, you should be prompted to enter login details.
Username: root | Password: toor

Part 4: Persistence

Open up GParted (you can find this by clicking the bottom icon in the task bar to the left, then you should see a search function - search GParted).
Once GParted is open, click the dropdown menu to the right and select the bottom option. If you only have one USB inserted, it should be /dev/sdb.
Select the partition with the label "Peristence".
Click partition at the top.
After this (choose unmount if the option is available) choose format to and then choose ext3.
Click edit at the top.
Choose Apply All Operations.
Apply.
Select the newly formatted partition.
Click partition at the top.
Click label.
Label "Persistence".
Choose Apply All Operations.
Apply.

Part 5: Reboot

Restart your machine (as in step 3).
Change your desktop background to a solid colour (grey for example).
Restart you machine again.
If your desktop background is the colour you changed it to, you now have persistent storage.

Hopefully this helps anyone having issues.

Fix Corrupted GUID Partition Table on Secondary Hard Drive

Boot to your OS X system
Open Terminal and enter diskutil list
Enter sudo gpt -r show diskX with X the device number of your external disk found in the previous output (probably 1 - below I assume it's 1 but use the disk number found in your environment in the commands below)
Enter diskutil umountDisk disk1
Remove the one and only partition:
```
sudo gpt remove -i 1 disk1
```

Add the EFI parititon:

sudo gpt add -i 1 -b 40 -s 409600 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B disk1

Add the main partition:

sudo gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 3798935504 -t 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk1

Verify disk and volume:

diskutil verifyDisk disk1
diskutil verifyVolume disk1s2

If you get an error in the last two steps add a comment.

Best Answer

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