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Q: Disk Utility 13 problem with USB drives

There appears to be a problem with Disk Utility 13 (part of OS X 10.9). At least, so far as I can tell, everything traces back to this app, or possibly OS X 10.9 itself.

 

I recently upgraded my MacBook Air to OS X 10.9 (reformatted hard drive, installed system from scratch, updated with all the latest Apple updates). I pre-checked all my third party software to make sure it was 10.9 compatible before installing it after the system cleanup, so everything I’m running supposedly has been approved as safe for 10.9. But I’m seeing a problem formatting USB drives that I do not encounter when running under 10.8.

 

I have a Seagate STAA500101 (“FreeAgent GoFlex”) drive connected via Seagate’s USB3 adapter that I’ve used for some time as a Time Machine backup. Post-overhaul, I decided to erase the backup and start fresh. When I attempt to format it (single GUID partition) with Disk Utility, I see the following messages go by:

 

Formatting disk1s2 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name Untitled 1

Could not mount disk1s2 with name (null) after erase

 

Then there’s a pause, and the format appears to conclude fine. But if I run a “Verify Disk” immediately, I get this:

 

Verifying partition map for “Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Media”

Checking prerequisites

Checking the partition list

Checking for an EFI system partition

Checking the EFI system partition’s size

Checking the EFI system partition’s file system

Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces

Volume  on disk1s2 has 0 bytes of trailing loader space and it needs 134217728 bytes

Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting

Error: Partition map needs repair because a data partition needs loader space.

 

As the drive has just been formatted, that seemed odd. I took it over to another Mac still running 10.8.5 and formatted it there — it worked just fine. Verified just fine. Took the drive back to my MacBook Air and tried to verify the disk — same failure.

 

I wanted to rule out bad media, so I took a Lexar 16GB USB flash drive and tried to format it with Disk Utility 13 — got the same problem.

 

The only success I’ve had formatting USB drives under 10.9 is to boot up into OS X Recovery. Disk Utility there formatted my Seagate drive without an error. But once I booted back into normal 10.9 operating mode, the drive once again fails to verify; it makes me leery about using it as a Time Machine backup.

 

I suppose it’s possible there could be some background component like Sophos causing problems when formatting drives, but if I format a drive via OS X Recovery or another Mac under 10.8, that wouldn’t explain why the drives fail to verify.

 

Anyone got any other observations on this issue?

MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9), 13-inch Mid-2011

Posted on Nov 9, 2013 11:10 AM

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Q: Disk Utility 13 problem with USB drives

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  • by fortbailey,Solvedanswer

    fortbailey fortbailey Dec 2, 2013 2:46 PM in response to fortbailey
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Dec 2, 2013 2:46 PM in response to fortbailey

    Problem resolved. I'm posting this note for anyone else who might run into this situation and come across this discussion.

     

    It actually did turn out to be Sophos -- Cloud, that is. I'd been using Sophos' free Mac antivirus software on a variety of systems but forgot that I was now testing out Sophos Cloud on my own MacBook, which is their new endpoint solution, and supposed to be compatible with OS X 10.9 (although the Mac version is listed as "beta") Sophos Cloud includes a new feature called Device Control which allows you to create a company-wide policy to control access to hardware such as USB drives, optical drives, etc. But apparently it's still pretty buggy. I had my Device Control configured with the default setting of "monitor but do not block" but it was most definitely gumming up the system. With Sophos Cloud installed, here's what happens if I try to run "Verify Disk" on any attached drive. Note on the left side how "disk2s2" shows as a sub-volume for each hard drive.

     

    sophos-installed.jpg

    So if I uninstall Sophos Cloud, reboot and rescan, here's what I get:

     

    sophos-uninstalled.jpg

    Works fine. Note that the "disk2s2" subvolumes are also gone. This is the way Disk Utility also appears on a 10.8 or 10.9 system, even if you have the standard free Sophos for Mac software installed. It's only Sophos Cloud that's not playing nice. It also appears to have stopped me from being able to play DVDs from an attached Apple USB SuperDrive -- that problem was likewise solved by removing Sophos Cloud.

  • by easoto,

    easoto easoto Feb 1, 2014 9:50 AM in response to fortbailey
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 1, 2014 9:50 AM in response to fortbailey

    Thanks for this post. I had the same issue this past week as I too evaluated Sophos Endpoint Cloud. Aside from the mount and format issues mentioned above, I also had issues mounting FileVault encrypted drives (using the built in Mac OSX FileVault.)

     

    However, removing Sophos Endpoint Cloud is not as simple as deleting the app from Applications!

     

    So, here is a link on how to remove it correctly:

     

    http://www.sophos.com/en-us/support/knowledgebase/119182.aspx

     

    And via Terminal:

     

    http://www.sophos.com/en-us/support/knowledgebase/14179.aspx

     

    Indeed, once Sophos Cloud Endpoint was removed using their procedure, all the problems with mounting USB disks went away.

  • by melissa05,

    melissa05 melissa05 Mar 28, 2014 12:20 PM in response to fortbailey
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 28, 2014 12:20 PM in response to fortbailey

    Hello, I am writing because I have recently gotten this error while attempting to repair my disk (LaCie external HD). It doesn't seem to want to repair it either... stalls out around halfway each time. I have been trying to do this because my LaCie has suddenly stopped launching on my desktop (yet it does show up in the system utilites and how I came across this error message!)

     

    I have recently upgraded to 10.9.2 but do not seem to have Sophos on my laptop. Anyother thoughts as to how to resolve the Error: Partion map needs repair because a data partion needs loader space?

     

    Thanks in advance! This has me really worried since I have so much on my external HD. —Melissa

     

    Screenshot 2014-03-28 12.19.45.png

  • by nodje,

    nodje nodje Apr 11, 2014 9:04 PM in response to fortbailey
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 11, 2014 9:04 PM in response to fortbailey

    Got the same problem here with my TimeMachine partition on an external USB disk.

     

    I've never installed Sophos, so obviously the problem is larger than what it seems, wveb though removing Sophos monitoring feature did solve the problem in your case.

     

    You've been lucky as the problem seem pretty much undocumented, judging for the few google results yielded by Google.

  • by nvrgnalse,

    nvrgnalse nvrgnalse May 10, 2015 1:11 PM in response to fortbailey
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 10, 2015 1:11 PM in response to fortbailey

    For anyone reading this: I was having the same error messages, couldn't use it to backup with Time Machine. I had a similar product installed called "Endpoint Protector" that allows you to do the same type of thing as Sophos (whitelist/blacklist devices). Anyways, after uninstalling it, everything works perfectly now. Thanks!