How do I recover/fix my OS X partition?

Question

I'm coming from Super User Community, since I wasn't aware of this specific one. My first and foremost care is the files on my system, I have been slacking on making backups (I know, it's really bad) and I really would at least want to transfer my files before I fully reinstall my system.

This was my original problem (still kind of is): After 'removing' Ubuntu from MacBook it cannot boot to OSX but loads Grub 2

Summary: I had a dual-boot OSX/Ubuntu, tried to remove Ubuntu, messed something up with the original Mac OS partition, can't boot or use the Mac OS (or any OS, since Ubuntu was cleared)

I made a Yosemite Boot USB and started up Disk Utilities from that:

• I see my MAC OS is now called 'disk0s2' and is greyed out
• It had no partition type
• I cannot use the functions: Activate (it does nothing), Activate journaling, Convert or Schijf-EHBO (not sure what it's called in english but is probably Disk Repair).

This is the information from disk0s2 and the Disk Utility screen:

(had to remove because I dont have enough reputation)

Is there any way I can repair this partition? Can I change its structure to what it was previously, soI can atleast grab some files from there?

Other info:

• I have a MacBook Pro Retina (2010)
• Before the crash it ran El Capitan
• Partition 'Naamloos' might've been part of the Mac OS parition?
• Recovery HD has been started up from but it cannot load my OS. (read my other post)

EDIT1: I might have the same problem as here as some others

Additional info:

diskutil list:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2: FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF               239.9 GB   disk0s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Naamloos                10.1 GB    disk0s4
/dev/disk1 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +2.1 GB     disk1
   1:                  Apple_HFS OS X Base System        2.0 GB     disk1s
/dev/disk2 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +5.2 MB     disk2

gpt -r show disk0:

      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6         
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  468597448      2  GPT part - FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF
  469007088    1269536      3  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  470276624   19695313      4  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  489971937     262782         
  490234719         32         Sec GPT table
  490234751          1         Sec GPT header

dd if=/dev/disk0s2 count=3 | vis -c:

3+0 records in
3+0 records out
1536 bytes transferred in 0.000682 secs (2252605 bytes/sec)
\^U\^D\^A\M-s\M^?\M^?\M^?\M^?\^A\0\^P\0\0\0\M-W\^A\a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\^B\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\M^Pu\M-\7\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0CS\^A\0\0\0\^D\0\0\^P\0\0\0\0@\0X\M-7}\^C\0\0\0\0X\M-;}\^C\0\0\0\0X\M-?}\^C\0\0\0\0X\M-C}\^C\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\^P\0\0\0\^B\0\0\0006j v\^R\M-+\^U\M^[\f\M^CdG\M-y\^]  K\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0=\^A\M-_\M-;\^Y)E\M-I\M-5\M-.<V\M-X\M^K\M-)\M-&\^Z\M-[\M^L\^_\M-$eC\M-&\M^I5\M-l\M^B\M^T\M-1f\M-;\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0`

EDIT4:

These messages were shown after doing the removing and readding the partitions:

http://imgur.com/a/nVN0j

The diskutil list after all the steps in @klanomaths answer (thanks for all the help by the way!)

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         239.9 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Naamloos                10.1 GB    disk0s4
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *61.8 GB    disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Install OS X Yosemite   61.5 GB    disk1s2
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *6.0 GB     disk2
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         30.7 KB    disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS OS X Install ESD        6.0 GB     disk2s2
/dev/disk3
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *1.3 GB     disk3
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         30.7 KB    disk3s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS OS X Base System        1.3 GB     disk3s2
/dev/disk4
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *5.2 MB     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               *524.3 KB   disk9
/dev/disk10
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *6.3 MB     disk10
/dev/disk11
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *2.1 MB     disk11
/dev/disk12
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *1.0 MB     disk12
/dev/disk13
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *524.3 KB   disk13
/dev/disk14

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER

   0:                            untitled               *524.3 KB   disk14

/dev/disk15
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *1.0 MB     disk15
/dev/disk16
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               *6.3 MB     disk16
Offline
                                 Logical Volume Macintosh HD on disk0s2
                                 71A45184-6D4E-4159-8EFA-3DEC31F9C958
                                 Locked Encrypted

Also, the disk0 show:

-bash-3.2# gpt -r show disk0

      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6         
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  468597448      2  GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  469007088    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  470276624   19695313      4  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  489971937     262782         
  490234719         32         Sec GPT table
  490234751          1         Sec GPT header

Answer 1

To add an answer exactly fitting to your case I slightly modified my answer in the linked "duplicate" and posted it here again.

---

The second as well as the third partition of your internal disk got the wrong partition type, your data probably won't be lost.

A bootable OS X partition (except the Recovery HD) either has the GUID 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC for a standard OS X partition or the GUID 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC for a CoreStorage partition. The FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF is an unknown partition type (but not no partition like the 000000-0000-0000.... one).

The first block of a standard OS X partition doesn't contain non-zeros, the first block of a CoreStorage partition contains some non-zeros. To get the first 3 blocks of a partition you have to use a substitute for hexdump/xxd (both aren't available in Recovery Mode/OS X Installer boot drive). The best I have found is dd if=/dev/diskXsY count=3 | vis -c.

The GUID partition table can be modified with gpt. gpt only writes to the first 34 and the last 33 blocks of a disk(512) or the first 6 and and last 5 blocks of a 4k disk. Modifying the partition table (even falsely) doesn't alter the content of any volume on your disk, if you don't intialize or repair a volume/disk by request. You may verify it though.

---

• Boot to your OS X Installer boot drive
• Open Terminal in the menubar Utilities > Terminal
• Get an overview with diskutil list

• Get an overview of your internal disk with the disk identifier found in the previous command. Below I assume the disk identifier of your internal disk is disk0 (replace it with the one you have found in your environment)

  gpt -r show disk0
  

• Unmount disk0 with diskutil umountDisk disk0

• vis the first 3 blocks of the FFFF... partition:

  dd if=/dev/disk0s2 count=3 | vis -c
  

  1. If you had a standard partition previously the first 1024 Bytes only contains non-printable (zeros): \0\0... After ~Byte 1030 you will see the following sequence: \0HFSJ\0

  2. If you had a CoreStorage partition some non-zeros in the first 512 Bytes and the string CS (...\0CS\^A...) are shown:

     \^U\^D\^A\M-s\M^?\M^?\M^?\M^?\^A\0\^P\0\0\0\M-W\^A\a\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\^B\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\M^Pu\M-\7\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0CS\^A\0\0\0\^D\0\0\^P\0\0\0\0@\0X\M-7}\^C\0\0\0\0X\M-;}\^C\0\0\0\0X\M-?}\^C\0\0\0\0X\M-C}\^C\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\^P\0\0\0\^B\0\0\0006j v\^R\M-+\^U\M^[\f\M^CdG\M-y\^]...
     

• Now remove the second and the third partition:

  diskutil umountDisk disk0
  gpt remove -i 2 disk0
  gpt remove -i 3 disk0
  

  If you get an error message like "resource busy" just unmount the disk again or unmount stubborn volumes with diskutil umount disk0sX.

  Re-add the recovery partition with the proper type:

  gpt add -i 3 -b 469007088 -s 1269536 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0
  

  Re-add the main partition with the proper type:

  Either a normal OS X partition (if you have found the typical traces of a normal partition in the dd ... vis step):

  gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 468597448 -t 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0
  

  or (if you have found the typical traces of a CoreStorage partition):

  gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 468597448 -t 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0
  

• Your disk should finally look like this if you have found a standard OS X partition:

      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6         
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  468597448      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECACC
  469007088    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  470276624   19695313      4  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  489971937     262782         
  490234719         32         Sec GPT table
  490234751          1         Sec GPT header
  

  or this, if you have found a CoreStorage volume:

      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6         
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  468597448      2  GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  469007088    1269536      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  470276624   19695313      4  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  489971937     262782         
  490234719         32         Sec GPT table
  490234751          1         Sec GPT header
  

• Finally verify/repair the disk with diskutil verifyDisk disk0 and/or diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2. If a repair is needed use repair (instead of verify) as prefix in the above commands but contact me before repairing it and send me the error message.