APFS partition show as "Unknown" can be fixed ?

[LeTux]

Hi,
My Macbook can't boot anymore, so I used a Linux Ubuntu live persistent USB to see what happened in Gparted.

So there are 2 partitions, first partition is a small corrupted FAT partition (probably boot stuff) and the second partition is the main MacOS partition, looks not corrupted but show as "Unknown", this partition should be a APFS partition.

I tried to fix it with testDisk but the only way to find the partition is by setting the partition table type as "none" but next step is about to set the right partition format, and here is the pain, there is no APFS format.

So that mean there is no way to fix APFS partition ?

I'm currently running PhotoRec to recover files, look like it's works but take long time, 20 hours left for a 250GB disk...

My first goal is to recover some files with PhotoRec, (look like this step is ok).

My second goal is fixing the APFS partition (if possible).

And my last goal is fixing the boot system (if possible).

Sorry for my poor English.
Thanks

[recuperation]

Hi,
My Macbook can't boot anymore, so I used a Linux Ubuntu live persistent USB to see what happened in Gparted.

So there are 2 partitions, first partition is a small corrupted FAT partition (probably boot stuff) and the second partition is the main MacOS partition, looks not corrupted but show as "Unknown", this partition should be a APFS partition.

I tried to fix it with testDisk but the only way to find the partition is by setting the partition table type as "none" but next step is about to set the right partition format, and here is the pain, there is no APFS format.

This is a wrong diagnosis, read below. Manipulating the partition table does not heal an obviously broken file system.

So that mean there is no way to fix APFS partition ?

Your TestDisk download came with a manual labeled "testdisk.pdf" If you had just searched for "APFS" inside that PDF you would not have found your file system.

I'm currently running PhotoRec to recover files, look like it's works but take long time, 20 hours left for a 250GB disk...

Assuming your that hard disk of your notebook can transfer 50 MB/s, 3 GB/min and 180 GB/h, 20 hours is slow if there is no other bottleneck like a slow connection to a target disk, which is not empty but half-used and fragmented. With PhotoRec running at approximately sustained source disk speed, that leeds to the conclusion that you disk is showing read errors that slow down the process. Instead of running PhotoRec directly you should have cloned your disk using ddrescue as described in the manual.

My first goal is to recover some files with PhotoRec, (look like this step is ok).

Read my comments above.

My second goal is fixing the APFS partition (if possible).

Reading the online documentation and/or the manual does not state anything to APFS reading abilities or even repairs. The only thing TestDisk is assumably able to do is to find a lost APFS partition and reintegrate it into the partition table.

And my last goal is fixing the boot system (if possible).

Putting your hard disk in an external enclosure, connecting it to another Mac computer and examining if you can read from your APFS is what I would have done - but keep in mind that I don't own a Mac and have no experience with it.

I can't help you with the Mac booting process. Looking at the "Apple file system reference", page 8, it looks like an APFS file system is used in combination with a standard GPT partition table.