Disk utility gives "Error: Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size"

I am getting this same error message in disk utility. On a 2011 iMac running ML. Trying to partition a 3TB Seagate Backup plus external HD for Mac firewire 800. It's a brand new HD.

Disk utility won't let me make any partition bigger than 1.5 TB. I want to set up a 2.9 TB partition , and a smaller 10GB partition.So I ran" Repair Disk" and got this same message.

Called Applecare and they're telling me it's a defective HD!!

yeah, after reading alot of reviews, this product seems to have a lot of bugs! :-/. Taken mine back after loosing info on it. Apple couldn't repair it so gave me back my money.

I'd look into another drive if I was you.

As a number of reports wer about the size of the partition, I repartitioned yet again. This time into two 1GB partitions and TimeMachine would alternate backing up between one and the other. That workef for a whole week but I just got the dreaded

Error: Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size.

yet again, after TimeMachine reported, as before that it couldn't write to a read only disk.

Back to square one.

2 Gb HitatchiG ST external drive. Same issue/s:

Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size.

and

Time Machine (TM) fails to backup, after the initial backup, when disk is in Airport Extreme (AE).

I've just repaired the Volume sucessfully in Disk Utility, but the error persists when attempting a repair on the disk itself. I will be trying the disk again for a TM backup on the AE.

Will report back...

I forgot to mention that I also Changed the root permissions to allow 'everyone' read and write access. I also retyped the user account passwords in the Airport Extreme disk sharing configuration.

Despite the persistent error in Disk Utility (on the disk itself, not the volume), TM is backing up sucessfully via the Airport Extreme.

Hopefully, this will continue to function correctly...

Unfortunately, the issue is not resolved. I therefore moved all data from the disk and performed a 'zero out' erase, which took 20 hours! Disk utility continues to report the same error:

Error: Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size.

I will try the disk back in the AE, but I am not hopeful.

Any joy anyone?

I doubt you'll have any luck with Disk Warrior—I haven't.

Sigh.

So, owing to some other issues related to the ML upgrade, I completely wiped my McBook Pro and reinstalled all my apps and the like. The good news? It seemed to have solved those problems. The bad news: It hasn't affected my ability to format and use this Hitachi Touro 2TB drive with Aiport Extreme.

I did however set it up as a Time Machine drive via the USB connection and that sort of works: TM will back up to the drive a few times and then seemingly the drive jams and my laptop won't recognize it unless I unplug the drive, turn it on and off, and reconnect. Then it works fine for TM—for a while it seems.

I just ran Disk Utility on the drive and, oddly everything checks out if I just verify and repair the drive; but if I check the partition, I get the same error message: Error: Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size.

Because I wanted to be able to back up via the wi-fi my real solution was to just go buy a Seagate drive. It's working fine.

I am getting the same error. Any solution yet?

Running 10.8.2 ML, iMac i5 with a Seagate 3tb external on USB 2.0.

What I am scared about is this is an exact mirror of my main, which is the same exact drive, model and size. I bought them at the same time.

What's odd is the main is not having any problems. I did a repair on it and it came back with no errors. The difference between the two is I keep the main plugged in and on at all times. The backup is an offline mirror that I sync with cronosync every couple weeks or so.

I started looking into this problem because chronosync would not sync files, giving me an error on any file that it needed to put into the trash (chronosync does a sync and if it finds an out of date file, it trashes it and replaces it with the new one from the main).

Now I can't use chronosyn and have to do complete backups of folders (which are terebytes and also puts extra strain on my main drive).

What I am thinking of trying is putting my backup into the main cradle. These seagates have the removable dock, and I thought maybe it is the dock.

Man I hope we can figure this out.

I just read here, http://forums.seagate.com/t5/GoFlex-GoFlex-Desk-GoFlex-Pro/possible-issue-with-1 0-8-and-4TB-Goflex-desk-for-mac-with/td-p/168362

This guy was able to repair it through Lion.

I don't have a machine running Lion but what I might try is botting from a Lion disk I made and using disk utility from that. Hopefully that will do it.

I might also try doing a command-r boot and using ML disk utility through that.

I also have an SL disk I could also try using to do a repair.

I will report back what I find. My only worry is how to prevent this from happening again, as I don't want to have to keep repairing this drive to backup to.

Following the above suggestion I run a 'Repair Disk' command with Disk Utility under 10.7.x on my USB 3 attached MyBook Essential 3TB hard drive - I was having ""Error: Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size" error previously under 10.8.2...

The strange thing is, that under 10.7.x Disk Utility finds no error at all !!!

So the obvious question is, perhaps this error code we are talking about is a pure 'cosmetic' bug of 10.8's Disk Utility?

Because after the repair attempt under 10.7.x if I connect this drive to 10.8.2, Mountain Lion's Disk Utility reports the same error again when checking with 'Repair Disk' command.

I tried all the things I had mentioned above and still couldn't get the error to go away.

Weirdly enough, I tried a Lion install disc I made and used Disk Utility from it to try and repair the error and it gave up.

I have a copy of Snow Leopard but I am out of dual layered dvds to burn it to. So I couldn't test with that.

It seems cosimetic, but mine has given me some funny errors. I use ChronoSync to sync this drive to another that is exactly the same. Chrono gives me errors on certain files saying it can't trash them (it is trying to trash the older version to replace it with the new one). This never used to happen till recently and then I find this error on this drive alone, the main one has no errors.

So frankly, I can't tell if this is something we're wasting our time on, or something that could get worse. I have read plenty of threads and it seems like some are actually having real problems after the discover the error, like the partiton gets corrupted, etc. So this is why I am concerned. Thought it is my backup, it is as important as the main.

Unfortunately this is not just a cosmetic bug with ML Disk Utility. This issue occurred for me after attempting to clone my startup volume to a new WD 2.5" 500GB HDD. The clone was successful but due to the "Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size" bug, my MacBook Pro wouldn't start up from the new WD disk once I installed it internally due to the partition map having become corrupted. Neither the GUID or Recovery partitions were able to be seen by my MBP -- only a corrupted Master Boot Record partition that could neither be verified or repaired.

Here are the details:

The drive is a brand new 500GB Western Digital Black WD500BPKT installed on my Late 2008 MacBook Pro running Mountain Lion 10.8.2.

Here's what happened:

- Used a new Rosewill SATA to USB adapter to connect the drive to the computer. (I'm not happy with the Rosewill adapter which, if moved, will disconnect the drive. It is being returned.)

- Formatted the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with one GUID partition.

- Scanned the drive for bad blocks and ran integrity test with Drive Genius. (Passed both tests.)

- Cloned my startup drive to the new WD drive using Carbon Copy Cloner with no issues. (CCC created a ML Recovery Partition using CCC with no issues.)

- Shut down the computer while the WD was connected via the SATA USB adapter.

- Installed the WD drive in the MacBook Pro.

The MacBook Pro would not see the WD cloned startup volume or the cloned Recover Volume, only a small Master Boot Record partition. I was able to use my original HDD's Recovery Partition (connected via the SATA USB adapter) in order to use Disk Utility to investigate the issue I was experiencing with the WD disk. Disk Utility reported only a Master Boot Record partition that could not be Verified or Repaired.

I then:

- Reinstalled my original hard drive into the MacBook Pro, which then booted normally.

- Connected the WD to my computer using the SATA USB adapter.

- Ran Disk Utility and received this error when trying to verify the MBR: "Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size." (There seem to be a few Apple Discussions regarding an issue that may be causing partition map corruption with some external disks that involvers having the drives connected while Mountain Lion sleeps or wakes from sleep.)

- I then re-formatted the WD disk using Disk Utility. (Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with one GUID partition. Successfully formatted.)

- Verified the MBR partition. (It verified successfully.)

Now here's the kicker:

- I put my Mac to sleep with the WD disk still attached via the SATA USB adapter.

- Woke up the MacBook Pro and the WD appeared on the Desktop and in Disk Utility normally.

- Re-Verified the partition map partition and -- guess what -- received the following error: Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size."

So it seems that under some circumstances, with some disks, Mountain Lion and Sleep may indeed corrupt the partition map.

As I wrote before, running the 'Repair Disk' command of Disk Utility under 10.7.x finds no error at all. Doing the same after this on 10.8.2 reports the known error message again - however no date has been copied in the meantime to this disk.

My confidence this might be a cosmetic bug is even stronger since 5 minutes, when Disk Warrior 4.4 finished Repairing this disk and found no error at all.

I'm not saying it's the case with everyone on this thread, but seems like my HD is healthy.

Let me add my two cents to this ... as others have said, running the 'Repair Disk' command of Disk Utility under 10.7.4 finds no error at all. Doing the same after this on 10.8.2 reports the known error message again - however no data has been copied in the meantime to this disk. What is even worse is that it casues a kernal panic if the drive is inserted when running. If the system boots while the drive is attached, no problems. But connect it after boot --- BAM ... KP.