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All mounted volumes erased when system crashed during XCode install

Curious to learn just how this could happen, as it did to me. I decided to download the XCode from App Store when Apple offered cheaply to non-registered people. I was running install in background when Safari crashed (I am completely up to date on OS/app releases, running Mac Mini). I quit everything but installer. After a couple hours where the progress bar didn't move, I manually powered down and restarted. When next I got rebooted (had to use a DVD, Snow Leopard) ALL of my mounted volumes -- internal, external Firewire (3) and 1 USB -- were empty of files. Partitions were there, but no data at all. Even my Windows partition (on internal) was erased. The only one that survived was an unmounted tech drive that I use when defragging, etc.

Fortunately my techie here says he can recover, I hope he's right, as this was the source files and backups for everything that was erased. I have way too much data to consider using iDisk or cloud (nearly two terabytes counting duplicate backups), but figured all source files were on external drives, plus backups of these on external, plus two external backups of the internal system drive, I was safe from hard drive failures. NOT SO! How could this happen during an install? What was XCode doing? TIA for any and all help...

Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.6.6), installing latest XCode

Posted on Mar 17, 2011 10:33 AM

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22 replies

Mar 17, 2011 11:35 AM in response to junglepayne@mac.com

junglepayne@mac.com wrote:
When next I got rebooted (had to use a DVD, Snow Leopard) ALL of my mounted volumes -- internal, external Firewire (3) and 1 USB -- were empty of files. Partitions were there, but no data at all.


Do those drives show as free space the entire capacity of each drive? If not, I'd try running a Disk Utility "repair disk" operation on them.

What was XCode doing?


I have no explanation of that.

Mar 18, 2011 5:31 PM in response to junglepayne@mac.com

Same Exact issue here. All hard drives, internal and external were vaporized... I'm using recovery software to get back my iTunes library and others but I lost a lot of data and hours of time.

It seems that xcode overwrote all of the file allocation tables on every drive that was connected to my CPU... Unthinkable! This is a huge burn since that included my time machine backup & sereval RAID 1 drives. I've never heard of a Mac deleting connected volumes before...

I tried connecting them to my laptop and still nothing on them. The entire amount of free space shows blank. Very scary stuff.

Mar 26, 2011 3:02 PM in response to junglepayne@mac.com

Add me to the list of victims to this great Xcode disaster. I had three drives attached to my iMac and all three now show absolutely nothing on them, and of course the internal drive was wiped clean. I am in the process of running Data Rescue and it is showing some signs of success. None of the recovered files have recognizable names and it will take months if not years to try to figure out what is what. I have learned, the hard way, how important it is to unmount your backup drives before installing new software. What a mess.

Excuse me now, I am feeling sooooo sick, I need to go throw up.

Mar 28, 2011 9:15 AM in response to junglepayne@mac.com

I was able to resolve this issue, but I can't say for certain which of the 2 things I did differently solved the issue.

1. Replaced the hardware: Because of the disk errors I was getting in the disk utility after the drive was deleted, I took the MacBook Pro back to the Apple Store and had it replaced.

2. I downloaded and installed XCode 4 from the developer site (costs $100 if you're not already a developer).

I suspect that the issue was solved by installing the developer site XCode download because it's a .pkg file, rather than an .app file. I think because the app is installed in the Applications directory, that it had different privileges and path than the .pkg install.

Apr 8, 2011 8:34 PM in response to Frustrated Dylan

Frustrated Dylan,

Same thing happened to me, too. Hard drive totally swiped clean. Fortunately, I have a bootable clone for backup.

I saw your notes and spent the $100 to access xcode from the developer site, then installed the .pkg file.... same problem.. installer stalls half-way through and hard drive wiped clean. Reinstall again.

I got to the point that I avoided the issue just to keep the stress level down.

Finally, I tried installing xcode on my 100% stock iMac and everything went off without a hitch.

So, one thing I'm wondering about now is whether there is something to your comment about the hard drive itself. Mine, in my laptop, is not the original that came with the unit... is it possible that is part of this problem? That if your hardware is not stock, it gets erased?

I know that sounds ludicrous, but this problem is also ludicrous.

Just wondering.. anyone?

All mounted volumes erased when system crashed during XCode install

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