MacOS – restoring to mavericks from yosemite, partition disappeared after fail

hard drivemacosrestoretime-machine

I have an mbpro 15" with 2 hard disks:
Main: SSD with OS
Extra: Time machine backups and data

For different reasons I wanted to downgrade to Mavericks. I rebooted with cmd+r and went to time machine backups. Selected from the Extra HD and selected the Main to restore to. Insert Filevault PW, etc, next, etc. I clicked 'restore' and then it gave me an error: "cannot restore" Without any specifics.

Rebooted and tried again but this time I didn't see my Main. I selected the time machine backup, because the Extra hard disk is there. But I couldn't choose Main as a restore point!

I checked with disk utility:

Both HD's are there. But it seems the partition dissapeared on my Main. I can't repartitions or format, the options aren't there.

Verify and repair disk didn't mention anything.

Who can help me restore to Mavericks? If not possible, restoring to yosemite is fine too, as long as I can use my Mac!

This is the output:

**-bash-3.2# diskutil cs list**
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 5B8350BF-20EF-4199-82E6-129EFF19E9EB
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         255200755712 B (255.2 GB)
    Free Space:   254855766016 B (254.9 GB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 907FCDE2-0C62-4951-A39E-36F19244FDB7
        ----------------------------------------------------
        Index:    0
        Disk:     disk0s2
        Status:   Online
        Size:     255200755712 B (255.2 GB)


**-bash-3.2# diskutil list**   
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *256.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         255.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *1.3 GB     disk1
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         30.7 KB    disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS OS X Base System        1.3 GB     disk1s2
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.2 GB   disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Hitachi                 449.8 GB   disk2s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS time machine            299.9 GB   disk2s3
/dev/disk3
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *5.2 MB     disk3
/dev/disk4
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *524.3 KB   disk4
/dev/disk5
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *524.3 KB   disk5
/dev/disk6
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *524.3 KB   disk6
/dev/disk7
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *524.3 KB   disk7
/dev/disk8
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *524.3 KB   disk8
/dev/disk9
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *6.3 MB     disk9
/dev/disk10
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *2.1 MB     disk10
/dev/disk11
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *1.0 MB     disk11
/dev/disk12
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *524.3 KB   disk12
/dev/disk13
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *524.3 KB   disk13
/dev/disk14
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *1.0 MB     disk14
/dev/disk15
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *6.3 MB     disk15
-bash-3.2# 

Best Answer

Basically your CoreStorage Volume Group got corrupted.

Usually a simple CoreStorage Volume Group looks like this:

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 9D2BA4BA-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         599640592384 B (599.6 GB)
    Free Space:   6111232 B (6.1 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 29A9A02B-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     599640592384 B (599.6 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family 2FA7892F-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 7BF42B7B-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          599282155520 B (599.3 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            No
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

Your LVG is missing a Logical Volume Family and a Logical Volume.

  1. Restart into (Internet) Recovery Mode by pressing cmd R or alt cmd R at startup or boot from a thumb drive containing a bootable system/recovery system/bootable OS X installer.
  2. Start Terminal and enter following command at the Terminal prompt:
    diskutil cs list
  3. Copy the Logical Volume Group (LVG) alphanumeric UUID of your CoreStorage volume. The LVG should be the first UUID listed and it’s the one you want to delete.
  4. Next, run the following command: diskutil cs delete UUID
    In your case: diskutil cs delete 5B8350BF-20EF-4199-82E6-129EFF19E9EB
    This will delete your corrupted CoreStorage volume and reformat it as an unencrypted HFS+ volume. Quit Terminal
  5. In the now opening window choose Disk Utility and format/partition the internal drive. Diskutil
    Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and GUID partition table (available with the option button). Quit Disk Utility.
  6. Plug in your Time Machine backup drive.
  7. Start Restore from Time Machine Backup and recover your old system TimeMachine