Q: Mavericks corrupts external hard drive

@LexSchellings

It has to do with WesternDigital as per the package content of the file called PLXDevicePlugin. I cannot upload a screenshot anymore here but I can tell I have seen stuff clearly related to WD (WD logo file, serial number list for instance)

I have now trashed all I could have found related to WesternDigital using the Find Any File tool. Be careful and don't mix up things with Wireless Diagnotics, wdhelper and the WesternDigital.xml file. The latter is embeded in the Disk Utilities.app

If you don't have the WDufu folder, that's because you never tried to upgrade the firmware of the WD disk?

What's the rationale with Instagram?

Message was edited by: Basilic

Basilic wrote:

 

@LexSchellings

I cannot upload a screenshot anymore here but I can tell I have seen stuff clearly related to WD (WD logo file, serial number list for instance)

 

 

Why not? It's a simple procedure. We would be interested to see it.

Pete

@PeterMac87,

... because, as I said, I trashed all, and emptied the bin.

@estApple, as you have the WDufu folder, can you post screenshot of the PLXDevicePlugin content please?

Message was edited by: Basilic

Basilic wrote:

 

@PeterMac87,

 

... because, as I said, I trashed all, and emptied the bin.

 

@estApple, as you have the WDufu folder, can you post screenshot of the PLXDevicePlugin content please?

 

Message was edited by: Basilic

Most convenient.

Cheers

Pete

Since Apple also uses WD drives, it may well be that in such cases there are "definition" files. Why delete those?

The problems are only in the WD software delivered by Western Digital !!

You ramble on and on. Have you already "researched" Instagram? Perhaps there is also a WDUFU folder or file. I did not say that, but only that it might.

Again, this WDufu folder has been created when I tried to upgrade the firmware of the external disk some months ago along with installing some of the WD disk utilities (manager and RAID). The creation date/time of this folder was corresponding to all the other WD related folders I had previously found.

I deleted that WDufu folder this morning purposely because there was enough evidence that it was specific to my WD experience on my iMac. However I managed to recover a google search I did on a string called "Apollo-D1Q-P1Q-1012-20100407-Release.bin". That file was somewhere located in the package of the PLXDevicePlugin file.

That google search pointed me to the WD support website and it relates to a genuine WD firmware file.

So, even if Apple can embark WD drive internally, how can you explain the creation of that folder with such a specific firmware file, such icon files with WD logos, with definiton files clearly stating "MyBook Studio II"...?

Lastly I cannot recall of any issue on internal disk whatever the brand for which Apple instructed to fix via their usual means. (This happened for the SSD of my MacBook Air some months ago because)

Oh by the way,... the internal disk of my iMac is a Seagate.

Lastly I have no clue of what Instagram is. Never used it. I can't find anything related to that on my computer.

Man... are you wasted...

tbirdvet wrote:

 

jeffsphto21:  You did not have some hidden partition by chance on your Seagate drive?  I erased a drive once and thought it was clean but later found a small hidden partition with their software on it.

Are such hidden partitions only on Seagate drives or also on WD drives?

BTW tbirdvet - Which files/apps were on that partition?

I assume it's technically not possible that such software could

actually RUN if not launched from somewhere else.

It says at the top of this thread that it  has been "branched to a new discussion" but when I click on that link  I get the following message:

"It appears you're not allowed to view what you requested. You might contact your administrator if you think this is a mistake."

Can someone explain this? And more importantly, will the thread be continuing here? I really, really want to keep track of this discussion.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/16369659#16369659

coxorange wrote:

Are such hidden partitions only on Seagate drives or also on WD drives?

They are found on certain specific drives made by various manufacturers. Typically, they contain no volume structure, so they can't be accessed accidentally. (In Apple-speak a "volume" is a partition with a volume scheme like HFS+ or FAT 32 on it & the associated data structures that enable an OS to find & manipulate the files on that partition.)

The EFI partition on the startup drive of Intel Macs is an example of a normally hidden partition. It is used during the boot process to enable the firmware in a Mac to identify the volumes containing an OS that it can start up from.

I assume it's technically not possible that such software could

actually RUN if not launched from somewhere else.

Correct. Just like the firmware in a Mac is pre-programmed to look for an EFI partition & read its data at boot time, something must be running on the Mac programmed to look for & run anything on the drive. The drive can't somehow force the OS to install & run the software on it. Something must tell the OS to do that. The drive's own firmware can tell it to run something on it, but that is internal to the drive & can't somehow "leap" into the OS or onto the Mac's startup volume.

R C-R wrote:

...
But there is still something apparently preventing the drive from unmounting "cleanly," & what it is remains to be discovered.

I agree.

But just to be clear, the long fsck run did not always occur when a drive that failed to mount in 10.9 was subsequently mounted in 10.6.8*. In other words, 10.9 appears to be more finicky about the file system's condition at the time of mounting. Frankly, I don't know how that could be, since both versions of OS X run fsck_hfs when mounting the drive.

Does anyone know whether there have been any changes to the fsck_hfs command/code between 10.6.8 and 10.9?

--GetRealBro

* Note: in my early testing I did not realize why the drive could not be mounted by Disk Utility and rebooted back into 10.6.8 or unplugged the cable after only a short time (i.e. less than the 8min that I later learned was required for the long fsck run to complete on this drive).

GetRealBro wrote:

In other words, 10.9 appears to be more finicky about the file system's condition at the time of mounting.

That's probably true, in some way or another. If you think about the changes Apple has made in the OS over the years, a lot of it is aimed at improving security & preserving data integrity. The security improvements should be obvious to just about anyone -- they often are annoying enough that they can't easily be overlooked. But there are also things like making journalling the default, & now more or less a requirement for installing the OS, that are directly related to data preservation.

These things are increasingly difficult to understand without substantial knowledge of how the OS functions "under the hood," something Apple believes (I think correctly) that most users don't want to get into. That's fine when "it just works," but frustrating when it doesn't.

Thanks for your answer.

R C-R wrote:

 

coxorange wrote:

I assume it's technically not possible that such software could

actually RUN if not launched from somewhere else.

Correct. Just like the firmware in a Mac is pre-programmed to look for an EFI partition & read its data at boot time, something must be running on the Mac programmed to look for & run anything on the drive. The drive can't somehow force the OS to install & run the software on it. Something must tell the OS to do that. The drive's own firmware can tell it to run something on it, but that is internal to the drive & can't somehow "leap" into the OS or onto the Mac's startup volume.

So it's possible that a drive's firmware could run software on such a hidden partition for its own use possibly for internal RAID 1 management (mirroring...) for example? Formatting such a drive via Disk Utility would destroy that hidden partition so that certain internal functions would no longer work?

So why re-format such a drive like the My Book Studio II (2 disks as RAID 1) which WD resets to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format? Furthermore I thought fsck would check the drive to see if it's acceptable? So what could re-formatting via DU improve?

i am still not sure wether my problem belongs to this thread

but obviously it is a mount problem due to 10.9 (10.9.1), as i can mount wd drives under 10.8.5!

i could not mount my wd drives (USB3.0)  since install of 10.9 on my 2 macs, but today i installed

techtool pro 7.0.2 and after that, it mounted correctly on my imac and showed a techtool symbol

as drive symbol instead of the orange colored usb symbol.

i still cannot mount the wd drive on my macbook air,

etre check lists as difference:

imac:

Kernel Extensions:

com.wdc.driver.USB.64.10.9          (1.0.1 - SDK 10.9) (today mount possible for the first time since weeks)

macbook air: no wd driver at all (and no mount possible)