5. Select the Disk and Volume
Recovery asks which disk before it lets you do anything — what's offered tells you the state of the drive.
On an unknown machine this prompt is a data point, not an obstacle.
The Boot-Device Picker
Startup Manager. Power on holding Option (⌥). Every bootable device appears as an icon: internal volumes, external drives, Recovery, and Network if internet Recovery is available.
Blocked by a firmware password — see Step 3.
"Select the volume you want to recover"
Recovery shows this when more than one system volume exists, or on Apple Silicon before unlocking an encrypted volume.
Macintosh HD(or a renamed equivalent) is listed → select it. If it's FileVault-encrypted you'll be asked for a password; you don't need it for hardware intake — cancel out and go to Terminal anyway. Every command in Step 6 reads hardware, not the disk.- Only
Macintosh HD - Datais listed → the system volume is missing. Erase and reinstall is the path. - Nothing is listed → see No Volume Offered below.
"Select a user you know the password for"
Apple Silicon and T2 Macs ask this to unlock the disk before giving you Disk Utility's full function.
You can skip this prompt
You do not need to satisfy it for intake. Cancel or click back — Utilities menu → Terminal stays available, and every command in Step 6 works without it. You only need credentials to erase a FileVault-protected volume, and only on some macOS versions.
If you can't get past it and the unit must be wiped, note it and handle the erase in Step 9.
No Volume Offered
The picker is empty, or only Recovery appears. Open Disk Utility and turn on View → Show All Devices — this is the single most important setting in Recovery, and it's off by default.
| Disk Utility shows | Meaning | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Physical disk, no volumes under it | Erased — a clean wiped unit | Normal. Record capacity, reinstall if required |
| Physical disk, volumes present but greyed out | Encrypted or corrupt container | Run First Aid — Step 9 |
| No internal physical disk at all | SSD removed or failed | Flag as a parts unit. Record HD = none |
On pre-2016 MacBook Pros the SSD is removable, so "no disk" often means it was pulled before intake — check the SSD removed? note from Step 1.