Cant format Mac ssd drive

[Tubetec]

I recently got a late 2013 Mac Pro , the internal NVME drive has a previous installation of Mac OS on it but its not bootable , it may have been part of a raid system .
I was able to get the computer to boot from usb memory , but the internal ssd then dissappears from the system ,
Ive also tried both internal and online recovery modes , while the SSD does show up, the format/erase options arent available ,
a 1tb drive shows up as a 1gb partition .

I went back to the native OS that came with this computer , my guess is the previous owner had upgraded to a later OS and thats what prevents my machine having proper access to the drive .
I have witnessed a simlar issue with Windows where a partition made on a modern OS isnt writeable by a legacy system .
Any help or advice welcome ,

 

[Bo Deadly]

I'm not a macOS guy but some drives support a special "secure erase" command that actually resets the memory cells. It's like a super-low level factory reset. But I'm not sure if NVME drives have the equivalent option since the hdparm secure erase feature is an ATA command and NVME drives don't use SATA.

If I were meddling with this, I would put it into a PC [1], boot Fedora Live from USB stick (although figuring out how to get it to boot from USB can be annoying as it sometimes requires fiddling with bios settings which is not ideal if you're just to do some transient thing), go into a terminal, run # journalctl or whatever disk commands to see if Fedora sees the NVME drive. That will give you the best environment to inspect the drive and reset it if possible using something like and NVME secure erase:

NVMe Secure Erase

After doing this, it might show up in macOS as a raw drive like it would if it came out of the box. But while I have used hdparm to secure erase SATA SSD drives, I don't recall doing a secure erase on an NVME drive. I don't think I have ever tried what is described in the above link.

[1] Actually I would first try putting in an M.2 / USB-C drive adapter that I got from Micro Center for $50 USD. IIRC you can actually hot-swap which is quite handy in these situations. Just plug in the Fedora Live run # journalctl -f, plug in the M.2 / USB-C drive adapter and see if it sees it. Run whatever commands to inspect the drive properties and maybe secure erase.

 

[Electrobumps]

This looks to be Apple security. The previous owner may not have released this machine from their apple account / iCloud. They should have removed their iCloud and user details before selling the machine. You may never be able to erase or use this drive unless you are logged in under their Apple ID / User ID.

Do you have contact with the previous owner?

 

[lovebuzzz2]

I had similar problems with MacPro disks... I don't know if it useful - but what helped was to connect the drive to Linux (I have Mint installed) machine and format it there...

Then put it back to Mac and format again for use in Mac

 

[Tubetec]

Thanks for all the helpfull suggestions ,
It seems likely that yes , the owner hasnt relinquished 'ownership' , simply pulled the raid array appart ,in which case it remains 'locked' for security purposes ,
I bought the computer from the original owner , so yes there is the chance to get back in contact with them .
In the mean time I've tried a few varieties of usb boot disks to try and format but no joy , she remains locked up tighter than a nuns nasty
The original owner might still have 2/4 of the other machines for sale ,so maybe I could get the other two off her ,rebuild the array ,then unlock it ,

Im completely new to the Mac ecosystem , its user friendly enough but another thing I havent figured out is how to dissable the itunes pop up when I press play on the headphone remote ,its not that I need the functionality but its the anoyance factor ,

I took a well deserved break from online in the last few weeks after Apple gobbled up my download allowance for a month in two days , allowed me concentrate on other more pressing issues and detox from the spit lickr net , I'll be back to my usual shenanigans, rantings and ravings in the brewery soon , have no fear

 

[Bo Deadly]

If you put the drive in a PC and look at it with something like Fedora Live and you can't see the drive in any way, then that must mean that the drive itself has the state necessary to hide or lock the drive (or the drive is dead). With that in mind, I did a quick google and found this:

https://www.hamishmb.com/how-to-unlock-a-drive-with-the-psid-unlocker-in-parted-magic/
So apparently you take a closeup pic of the drive to capture the PSID like:



and then you can run some tool, enter that PSID (very carefully) and unlock the drive.

 

[boji]

Was going to recommend booting into gparted if it's a LVM partition.
Easeus partition manager has a "force unmount" option but I've only used it to get around win encrypted drives.

Here's a vid on Bo's recommendation:

 

[Tubetec]

I was able to run a linux based startup disk , it did see the drive as a 960gb OWC unit ,it appeared to allow me overwirte/erase , which it tore through at upto 1200 mb/s but there was an error of some kind at the end and the drive remains locked in Apple OS . There was also a command line start up option ,but I didnt have a clue what the format command is in linux , I was trying to punch in Dos commands

Gparted Ive used before , in fact I have a live CD with it on , probably a more modern version available now .
One tricky thing with the Mac Pro is that apparently to update the firmware you require the original drive that came with the computer , if thats gone you cant update , the only way is to find an original SSD from a Mac Pro . In any case I think the SSD in mine is original ,but remains locked for now .

Ive probably mentioned this previously but its very well worth mentioning again ,
There have been issues with the Pro 6.1 where it overheats , which causes glitchouts and other issues ,
First thing I did with mine was throughly clean out the fan and cooling system , it brought exhaust air temp down to around 20degres C from around 35C before the cooling system was cleaned ,
If you have a Mac Pro you have been running for nearly 10 years be sure the fan is choked with dust at this stage , airflow was restricted to maybe 30-40% of what it should have been . The machine simply cant have been performing properly in this condition , maybe all part of the reason they were replaced by the previous owner .

The APFS file system is the current Apple default format ,
The OS Im using predates APFS as far as I know , so maybe thats part of my issue , Its currently running on Mavericks ,but theres every chance the partition Im trying to overwirte was created by a later OS version .

The joys of it , I'll get it sorted alright though ,
Cheers to all for the help .