I have a MacBook that will boot up from an external SSD that has macOS Sierra installed.
However once I boot into macOS and see my disks using diskutil list, no physical internal drive
is found. Only the external SSD as disk0.
The internal SSD on a MacBook from 2016 is soldered onto the logic board, and after opening the MacBook, there was no corrosion found, and no liquid was ever spilled onto it.
So I don't think that the SSD died.
Is it possible that if the SSD is alive and well, that it then wouldn't be listed as a useable drive?
I had deleted all the partitions like "Macintosh HD" and "Recovery disk" by mistake, and maybe now the drive is not accessible by the MacBook?
Also, its worth knowing, the MacBook came with OSX – El Capitan, but still boots with macOS Sierra.
Thanks for your help in advance.
Best Answer
first you should go into macOS Recovery and go to Disk Utility. Select Macintosh HD and then Info. See if the disk is listed as bootable by Disk Utility. If it doesn't say bootable, then try running first aid. If the Disk is not recognized, then see if it is recognized when booting macOS Sierra from the external drive. By doesn't boot up, if you mean it is stuck on the Apple logo, then you can try resetting the SMC and NVRAM/PRAM. Also, try using power-on self diagnostic (you must disable Firmware Password). If none of those work, then try using Single user mode (reboot then Command + S). After that, run
fsck_apfs. I am aware that this probably won't work if the MBP won't boot but if you can access macOS Recovery, then you can rest assured that this is not an issue with your SSD being dead. Good luck!