Don't find HDD anymore after interrupted HDD erase in disk utility

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Hi everybody,

In disk utility (starting up with comd + R), I wanted to erase my HDD using the 7 times overwrite method. After a few hours, I did stop the erasing and than chose for the 3 times overwriting method. But since that also would take 6 hours, I also stopped this erasing method. I received a message that a certain file couldn't be found and that the erasing had failed.

When I then looked in the left column in disk utility, where all available devices are mentioned, I found the Macintosh HDD, but I didn't find the submenu you always have with devices, there were you have the repartition/erase etc information.

When I than tried to reinstall OSX Maverick my MAC HDD didn't show up as a place where I could reinstall the OSX! So, my HDD is still there (I could do a disk test which gave me no errors) but I can't use it to install / reboot my OSX.

I now installed Maverick on an external drive, but when I do open Finder my actual original MAC HDD is not visible.

In disk utility, I also couldn't activate the MAC HDD.

I am so desperate! This is an 21 inch IMAC I bought in August 2013. It has a Fusion drive.

Can some please help?

I think I must 'activate' the HDD or make it a logical drive but I don't know how.

Thx
 
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Just incase it has a bearing on your issue, were you previously suffering from any problems that prompted your secure initialise attempts?
 
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Just incase it has a bearing on your issue, were you previously suffering from any problems that prompted your secure initialise attempts?

Hi,

no, I had no problems with my Mac before.
It is just because I interrupted erasing my HDD twice that I got this problem.
The HDD is still visible in disk utility, but I can't activate or use or change anything on it.
 
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I SOLVED THE PROBLEM!

Run Terminal from the install DVD.

diskutil listIn the list produced, find the identifier of the drive you want to erase. It'll be something like disk0, disk1, etc. Then...
diskutil eraseDisk HFS+ "Macintosh HD" disk0
Replace 'disk0' with the disk identifier you figured out earlier, and you can replace "Macintosh HD" with whatever you want your volume to be named. If it has spaces, you MUST keep it in quotes. Otherwise the command will error out.

Fantastique!!!!
 
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Good to hear your sorted the problem. There are many very useful terminal commands you can find listed on the web. A few weeks ago I was trying to reinitialise a customers 3TB fusion drive due to an unresolvable OS issue, every terminal command failed. That was resolved by cutting through the sticky VHB strips, removing the LCD, removing the 3TB HD, reinitialising in a caddy attached to another Mac, initialising without issues, then reassembling (an Apple suggestion). Firing up disk utility prompted to recreate the fusion drive and a clean OS was installed. I don't want to see any more like that, glad yours wasn't too involved. Panic over.
 

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