4 TB Hard drive formatting default to Logical Volume Group

My Mac Pro has been misbehaving in the same sort of way since 10.8.3 (I think).

I've had 3TB drives in there for a long time, and they'd always formatted as expected (HFS+, single volumes, no sign of a logical volume etc.). My config:

Optical drive

SSD in lower optical bay

3TB Bay 1

3TB Bay 2

3TB Bay 3

2TB Bay 4

Since 10.8.3 (I think), I've had the same problem as the original poster. I've got a hunch that it's only happening on machines with an SSD drive installed, though, and that it's the OS/Disk Utility trying to do something clever à la Fusion Drive. Anyone have this problem with a machine that doesn't have an SSD also?

I am not professional. I had same problem and i tried whole night to solve this problem but I could not do this. In the morning with frustration I tried to eject my external hard drive and it said miro is using your hard drive you can't eject it. Then I quit miro and tried to repair my hard drive using disk utility; surprisingly it worked. I wonder and don't know how it worked but seriously it worked. I have solved my problem.

SOLUTION:

I have experienced the same problem that others have here. I have an Intel MacPro in which I recently installed a new internal 3TB hard disk.

I attempted to format it in Disk Utility under OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) using standard GUID partitioning. But disk Utility formatted it using a Logical Volume Group (LVG) instead of GUID.

Disk Utility subsequently refused to allow me to reformat or repartition this drive. I thought I was stuck with a LVG drive.

For the solution that worked for me see the answer by GrowlTiger at AskDifferent

Booting from an older DVD was suggested above. It also works to mount the drive in an external enclosure.

@Grant

Yes, I read the entire thread, and several others here.

I tried 10.8.3 and it didn't work in my situation. When booting from 10.8.3 the Partition Layout drop-down was still greyed-out in Disk Utility.

My solution uses the 10.6 DVD because it's the last universal DVD that is available from 10.6 to 10.8. This was a convenient bootable source for me, and I assumed it would be so for others who don't have multiple bootable copies of historical OS X versions readily available.

Hi Jason. I have been working through this problem with a late 2008 Mac Pro. I haven't talked to Apple, but they would probably also say that it isn't qualified for 4 TB drives.

Some thoughts.

1) I have only had this problem (formatting as a Logical Volume Group) for my Seagate Drive. My Western Digital 3 TB internal drives are fine.

2) There are some workarounds for the problem here and here (either formatting under Snow Leopard or from the command line)

3) Even if you think that your computer isn't qualified for 4 TB drives, a cheaper solution might be to go get a modern eSATA card (I have a Sonnet) and dock (I have a Thermaltake BlackX Duet), which seem to work for me up to 4 TB. I have found it very hard to determine which docks are qualified for 4 TB drives and which work reliably, but this setup has so far worked for me. (See my comments at newegg.com for some glitches on the dock).

Even if you think that your computer isn't qualified for 4 TB drives

The consensus here is that Mac OS X after 10.4.4 does indeed support extremely large drives (including 4TB) provided you can physically plug it into your Mac.

Apple-acknowleged Bugs have kept it from working properly.

Apple never endorses what they have not tested themselves, and for models it are not currently shipping, the chances of getting them to regression test something they do not sell has been near Zero.

Thanks! This helped me reformat my drive to Journaled HFS+, Awesome!

Disk Utility kept formatting my brand new 3 TB hard drive using a Logical Volume Group partition scheme even though I selected the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) GUID partition scheme in the Disk Utility. The Partition Layout dropdown menu under the Partition tab in Disk Utility was grey and unusable. I managed to coax the 3 TB hard drive into GUID Partition format using the command line:diskutil cs delete [hard drive’s Logical Volume Group ID]. I can copy small files to the 3TB hard drive. Copying a file larger than about 30 MB generates error 36 or error 8062 if I copy to the 3 TB hard drive but does not generate any error if I copy the same file to a 2 TB hard drive.

If I upgrade my OS to Mac OS 10.10 Yosemite will this allow me to use hard drives larger than 2 TB?

If I split the hard drive into partitions smaller than 2 TB will this avoid I/O errors like error 36 and error 8062?

3 TB Hard drive Model No.: WDC WD3000FYYZ 7200 RPM. 2 TB Hard drive Model No.: WDC WD2002FAEX, 7200 RPM. Both hard drives connect to a Mac Pro 3,1 (Early 2008) using eSATA cables and an Intel ESB2 AHCI Controller eSATA card.

Almost 2 years later and the "bug" is still there. It has not been fixed yet in 10.10.4. Just tried formatting a 6T drive and it is now a Logical Volume.

Hello,

January 14, 2016

in 2014 I was running Mavericks and I installed a 3 TB Seagate internal hard drive into my early 2009 Mac Pro Tower

and as with all my new hard drives I always go to disk utility and do a secure Erase and write a single pass of zeros over the entire drive to get rid of any possible bad sectors and create a clean slate for future diagnostics by technicians

by the time the zeroing out process finished the drive was formatted as a logical volume group and everything was grayed out and I was dead in the water

I took my computer to the Apple Store and they were able to properly formatted and make it work however an interesting thing happened when I do an option start on my Mac Pro tower there are two 3 TB drives listed but I only have one installed One of the icons is the drive itself the other identical icon is an EFI

NOW I'M RUNNING YOSEMITE......A few months ago I bought a 7200 RPM Seagate 6 TB and internal hard drive and I was worried about what would happen even though I'm running Yosemite now I was concerned that I would once again be put back into a logical volume group when attempting to do a secure erase which is what happened and Yosemite with the 3 TB drive

I clicked on the partition tab in Yosemite everything worked fine but my concern is that if I try to do a secure erase of the 6 TB drive itself that it might be formatted as a logical partition group again and be dead in the water

Does anybody have any answers regarding this I realize there are steps you can use by accessing disk utility in snow leopard to access partition tab and successfully set up the drive that way but I need to click on the erase tab to do a secure erase

And the last time I did that I was running Mavericks and a 3 TB drive was formatted as a logical partition group and I was dead in the water but now I'm running Yosemite and I want to know if I try to do a secure erase of my 6 TB internal drive will it once again be formatted as a logical partition group or not

Note… I was successful partitioning the 6 TB drive on my early 2009 Mac Pro tower with no issues I just want to know if I will have a problem if I try to do a secure erase IN ERASE TAB with this drive running Yosemite which I am running now … I'm just afraid that if I try to do a secure erase IN ERASE TAB with the 6 TB drive that it will be formatted as a logical partition group and everything will be grlayed out and I will be dead in the water like I was with my 3 TB drive when I was running Mavericks when I was trying to do the same secure erase IN ERASE TAB!!!… Not in partition tab !!!

Neither Apple or Seagate have a convincing and clear answer to this ....I'm sure the definitive answer is out there somewhere.

What a pain!!!

Please help if you can

Thank you very much

I guess I can more briefly sum up my more lengthy previous post by simply asking the question below

I have an early 2009 Mac Pro tower

How can I perform a Secure Erase of a 3 TB (or larger) hard drive (either with or without using the Terminal) in Yosemite without the drive being converted into Core Storage ( or logical volume group)?

Perhaps it's no longer an issue with Yosemite but in mavericks it was

Please help

Thank you

Hi All,

Thank you for this thread, it really helped me.

mac pro MacPro4,1 10.8.5

Here's what I found:

New Toshiba 4TB int drive installed

Format with DU

Get LVG, with no way to go to GUID

I used the terminal commands in this thread to delete the LVG.

4TB shows as a GUID drive, with 4T avail.

Select the partition below main vol, do erase so I can rename it (was "untitled")

DU formats it to LVG

Use terminal to delete LVG

Now its GUID

Quit DU, Go to finder, select drive, hit enter, type new name, enter.

launch DU

DU shows it as GUID with new name.

Although I can get around an OS, I know enough to be dangerous in terminal.

Q: Did I prep my new 4TB drive correctly so it can now be trusted? (naming it in finder is my concern)

(I think all is well, but Im asking for someone to confirm my thoughts :-)

Aside topic: Im currently in process of testing OS 10.11 with all my apps and want to migrate to that OS. The new 4TB drive will only be for media and some temp backup.

Q: Do you think that this LVG issue will be a problem in 10.11?

Thank you to all the wiz kids out here for taking their time to help. GRATITUDE

BradP

You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is marked solved and is a couple of years old, less people are likely to look at it. A new post would be much more visible. You can link to this one.

Based on what you posted, I think you will be okay.