Q: Mavericks corrupts external hard drive

Thanks for your idea I believe I have done this , I used a suggested list in a thread to delete plist entries and all wd titled software , I then used activity monitor to check, of course it is possible that a file is running but withought an extensive list I can't do any more. Do you have a view of exactly what to delete ?

Yes, and I have the same problem that cropped up suddenly on my Western Digital2002FAEX 2TB external drive. So its not limited to just 1 WD drive and Mavericks.

People....we really have to put some heat on Apple and Western digital for some answers and a fix!

People....we really have to put some heat on Apple and Western digital for some answers and a fix for this problem!!

I have a 2 TB Western Digital external drive that all of a sudden, after working just fine with Mavericks for several months, then suddenly went AWOL.

I never installed any HD software on the drive and used only Apple Disk Utility to first format and then run Disk Utility on it to check.

Niether 10.9.2 nor 10.9.3 make any difference regarding this issue.

Nothing works!

I've lost almost 1 Terabyte of video footage.

Well here is not the place to put any heat on Apple. These forums are just read by users like yourself. Apple does not read them.

If you want Apple to read anything you need to send it to http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Allan

adamfromberlin wrote:

 

People....we really have to put some heat on Apple and Western digital for some answers and a fix for this problem!!

The same issues manifested on Windows, why exclude Microsoft?

But it's WD's screwup.

I too am experiencing the same issue of Western Digital hard drives suddenly disappearing. This appears to have happened after upgrading from 10.9.2 to 10.9.3. No WD support software is installed, or, as far as I am aware, ever was (I always format hard drives before using them for the first time).

It appears that this is a widely experienced corruption issue somehow related to Mavericks. However, I did not notice this until after upgrading to 10.9.3.

As another user in this thread suggested, I ran EtreCheck. The only notable issue was that all drives are reported as not having adequate space for a backup. However, in the past this was never an issue, as time machine automatically "thins" (deletes) the oldest data. Results below, if it helps anyone diagnose:

Hardware Information:

          MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010)

          MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro7,1

          1 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores

          16 GB RAM

Video Information:

          NVIDIA GeForce 320M - VRAM: 256 MB

System Software:

          OS X 10.9.3 (13D65) - Uptime: 0 days 1:45:16

Disk Information:

          TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100H disk0 : (1 TB)

                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

                    Snuffleupagus (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 651.35 GB (244.86 GB free)

                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

                    BOOTCAMP (disk0s4) /Volumes/BOOTCAMP: 348 GB (87.66 GB free)

          MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-898 

USB Information:

          Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

          Apple Internal Memory Card Reader

          Logitech USB Receiver

          Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

          Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

          Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Thunderbolt Information:

Gatekeeper:

          Anywhere

Startup Items:

          ProTec6b: Path: /Library/StartupItems/ProTec6b

Launch Daemons:

          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

          [loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist Support

          [loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support

          [loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist Support

Launch Agents:

          [loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support

User Launch Agents:

          [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support

          [failed] com.spotify.webhelper.plist Support

User Login Items:

          Dropbox

Internet Plug-ins:

          FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 13.0.0.214 - SDK 10.6 Support

          QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

          AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.07 - SDK 10.6 Support

          AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.07 - SDK 10.6 Support

          Flash Player: Version: 13.0.0.214 - SDK 10.6 Support

          Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

          SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.1.0 Support

          JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 55 Check version

Safari Extensions:

          Facebook Cleaner: Version: 3.3

          Ghostery: Version: 1.4.1

          Shortly: Version: 2.4

          PanicButton: Version: 0.1

          clea.nr Videos: Version: 4.3.0

          1-ClickWeather: Version: 1.0

          ExifExt: Version: 1.7

          Turn Off the Lights: Version: 2.0.0.51

          A Cleaner YouTube: Version: 2.1.7

          Awesome Screenshot: Version: 1.3.4

          GMail Counter: Version: 0.9.3

Audio Plug-ins:

          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9

          AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9

          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9

          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9

iTunes Plug-ins:

          Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9

User iTunes Plug-ins:

          GasLight: Version: (null) Support

          Magnetosphere: Version: (null) Support

          LEDSpectrumAnalyser: Version: v2.0.5

          CoverVersion: Version: 1.7.1 Support

          volcanokitPlugIn: Version: 1.1 Support

          CocoaBundle: Version: (null) Support

          vTunes4: Version: (null)

User Internet Plug-ins:

          fbplugin_1_0_3: Version: (null) Support

          CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: Version: 1.0.92 Support

          Picasa: Version: 1.0 Support

          Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 7.1 Support

3rd Party Preference Panes:

          Flash Player  Support

          Java  Support

Time Machine:

          Skip System Files: NO

          Mobile backups: ON

          Auto backup: YES

          Volumes being backed up:

                    Snuffleupagus: Disk size: 606.61 GB Disk used: 378.56 GB

          Destinations:

                    Mac [Local] (Last used)

                    Total size: 698.69 GB

                    Total number of backups: 1

                    Oldest backup: 2014-01-02 14:42:58 +0000

                    Last backup: 2014-01-02 14:42:58 +0000

                    Size of backup disk: Too small

                              Backup size 698.69 GB < (Disk used 378.56 GB X 3)

                    Gemini [Local]

                    Total size: 805.00 GB

                    Total number of backups: 24

                    Oldest backup: 2011-12-09 16:35:00 +0000

                    Last backup: 2013-12-16 06:16:40 +0000

                    Size of backup disk: Too small

                              Backup size 805.00 GB < (Disk used 378.56 GB X 3)

                    Azure [Local]

                    Total size: 931.16 GB

                    Total number of backups: 9

                    Oldest backup: 2014-02-01 01:13:30 +0000

                    Last backup: 2014-05-15 14:11:20 +0000

                    Size of backup disk: Too small

                              Backup size 931.16 GB < (Disk used 378.56 GB X 3)

          Time Machine details may not be accurate.

          All volumes being backed up may not be listed.

Top Processes by CPU:

               7%          mds_stores

               6%          mds

               5%          WindowServer

               1%          hidd

               0%          launchservicesd

Top Processes by Memory:

          737 MB          mds_stores

          180 MB          Safari

          98 MB          mds

          82 MB          Dropbox

          82 MB          Mail

Virtual Memory Information:

          10.20 GB          Free RAM

          3.21 GB          Active RAM

          1.12 GB          Inactive RAM

          1.22 GB          Wired RAM

          6.10 GB          Page-ins

          0 B          Page-outs

I can only agree with your complaint. The only real difference is that for me the problem occurred suddenly 2 days ago while I was still using OS 10.9.2 . Then I 'upgraded' to 10.9.3 but the problem remains exactly the same.

My WD external drive now shows only 1 EMPTY partition instead of the 2 partitions I originally created with Disk Utility several couple months ago. More than a Terabyte of data is now invisable, inaccessible.

This is serious and needs to be addressed soon by Western Digital and Apple!

Pass on the word.

Unfortunately, while the problem does seem to mostly affect Western Digital drives and looks to be primarily their fault....the problem appears to be cropping up on some other firewire drives as well.

So....what gives?

Which other drives, link please.

adamfromberlin wrote:

 

I can only agree with your complaint. The only real difference is that for me the problem occurred suddenly 2 days ago while I was still using OS 10.9.2 . Then I 'upgraded' to 10.9.3 but the problem remains exactly the same.

 

My WD external drive now shows only 1 EMPTY partition instead of the 2 partitions I originally created with Disk Utility several couple months ago. More than a Terabyte of data is now invisable, inaccessible.

 

This is serious and needs to be addressed soon by Western Digital and Apple!

 

Pass on the word.

Have you contacted WD, they were giving customers free data recovery software, you might be a bit late now but it's worth a try.

adamfromberlin wrote:

 

Unfortunately, while the problem does seem to mostly affect Western Digital drives and looks to be primarily their fault....the problem appears to be cropping up on some other firewire drives as well.

So....what gives?

What it reminds me of is an incident that took place a number of years ago involving DRAM. After an OS X update some users' DRAM suddenly became unrecognized by the system. Outraged users demanded Apple fix it immediately as their DRAM was perfectly compatible with Mac computers. After a few weeks of investigation and detective work it turned out that the users affected were using DRAM that did not fully comply with the industry standards and specifications. The firmware on the DRAM modules themselves had a bug. Apple had simply tightened the requirements for compatible DRAM in an effort to increase reliability. Of course the conspiracy theory was that Apple did this to force people to buy it's DRAM. The reputable DRAM manufacturers offered free replacement modules that did not have the frimware bug. The affected DRAM also tended to be made by the lower end manufactureres. People who had DRAM installed made my Crucial, Micron, and other high end manufacturers did not experience any problems.

I think this a totally a WD problem and totally related to their supplied software. Reports of other drives being affected are few and far between and enough to be considered background noise or anecdotal in nature. That being said I have three WD drives attached and none of them have experienced this issue.

This discussion raises the question of why so many people buy brand name externals rather than getting a good enclosure and choosing exactly what drive goes into it. Convenience? Price?

I think that in many ways it's better to get a reliable enclosure and install the drive yourself. You often get a better warranty on a good bare drive than you do on an external of the same brand. And you have a better sense of the quality of the enclosure than you do buying a pre-rolled external. The enclosures I use are easy to open, and you can put in a different drive if your needs change. I'm not sure you can do this with a Seagate or WD external very easily, if it can be done at all without damaging the enclosure. If you run into problems, troubleshooting is easier because you can remove the drive easily to determine whether the drive or the enclosure is at fault, assuming you have the right stuff on hand to test them separately.

I've got mostly OWC enclosures right now, and find them very easy to work with. I've been using mainly HGST drives in them.

I actually have been installing bare drives into external enclosures for some time now and agree that its the best way to go. However I now have the Western Digital/Mavericks 'empty drive' problem in a quality enclosure with a WD Black WD200FAEX drive installed. This is a quality drive....but its the one that was working fine [ with Mavericks] and now suddenly won't read.

Basically same problem as described by so many people on the forums.

There still appears to be no real fix for the problem yet.

adamfromberlin wrote:

 

Basically same problem as described by so many people on the forums.

There still appears to be no real fix for the problem yet.

And for the vast majority who continue to have no problems (even with WD crap) nothing has changed. The answer lies in your installation, this is not a systemic issue.

adamfromberlin wrote:

 

I've lost almost 1 Terabyte of video footage.

Do you not backup your stuff?