Q: Mavericks corrupts external hard drive

Hi peppermint, you have a better chance when starting a new thread. This thread is already too long, most will not go read all that is here.

If you post the new thread here, we will find you fast.

Lex

coxorange wrote:

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?

Yes & no. It is possible that if something on a hidden partition is essential for proper functioning of the drive's firmware that it won't allow any general purpose utility like Disk Utility to modify it, thus making it non-functional.

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'm not sure what exactly you mean by "resets to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" but for use with Macs that is the preferred file system (whether mirrored or not) so that is how the disks should be formatted.

fsck just checks the file system for inconsistencies. It is difficult to explain how that works without getting into the details of how the different file systems work, but for example the directory entries that keep track of where on the drive the various segments of files are located can be checked to make sure different entries don't point to the same file segments as other entries. If they do, it indicates that one or more file segments is no longer valid for at least one of the files.

fsck can try to resolve that, but that means at least one of the files is no longer valid & will be deleted to preserve the integrity of the other, presumably undamaged one. That's more or less the meaning of the caution in the fsck man page about allowing it to keep trying to repair a badly damaged file system without limit. That could cause a great many files to be deleted.

But, it is important to remember that even this can't cause the drive to be reformatted. The file system will still be the old one, albeit with far fewer directory entries (& thus far fewer files) that it can keep track of. All or some of the file segments may still be there, but their location is no longer known to the file system & could be overwritten with new data.

Thanks for your answer.

R C-R wrote:

I'm not sure what exactly you mean by "resets to Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" but for use with Macs that is the preferred file system (whether mirrored or not) so that is how the disks should be formatted.

When changing the RAID mode via WD RAID Manager (the only possible way) this equals to a "reset" (with quick formatting) of the drive. There are only 4 options:

   - Mac OS Extended (Journaled) RAID 0 (was default when purchased)

   - Mac OS Extended (Journaled) RAID 1

   - Windows xxx RAID 0

   - Windows xxx RAID 1

Once I wanted to delete an old Time Machine backup and learned that trashing the backup took many hours and found "changing" the RAID mode from 1 to 1 ( ! ) did the same, but much quicker.

Can you confirm that after such a "Reset" to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) the drive can be used with Time Machine = no additionally re-format via Disk Utility required?

@LexSchellings

@pertermac87

@estApple

Regarding the presence of the folder WDufu into ~/Library/Application Support/

I have just now completed a reinstall of Mavericks from scratch on a single partition of my internal disk and I can confirm this folder doesn't exist by default.

Therefore as per my previous comments, I confirm that was related to a firmware upgrade of an external WD disk.

So far to recap, I had previously found WD related stuff in the following folders :

~/Library/Application Support/

/Library/Application Support

/Library/LaunchAgents

/Library/LaunchDaemons

/Library/Preferences

/Library/PriviledgedHelperTools

/Library/StartupItems/

/System/Library/Extensions

To help you uninstall WD related sw, use the relevant WD uninstaller, then use Terminal commands and the Find Any File tool to complete the process properly.

PS. The reason I resinstall Mavericks from scratch is because of weird behaviours in Finder, general slowness and a language issue in MacAppStore, on top of this external disk issue.

PS2. The reason I didn't go back to Mountain Lion (as I would have liked) is because my iPhoto libraries had been upgraded following the Mavericks install and that they could not be fallen back to a ML compatible version of iPhoto.

coxorange wrote:

Can you confirm that after such a "Reset" to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) the drive can be used with Time Machine = no additionally re-format via Disk Utility required?

Mac OSX extended journaled or HFS+  formatting,     or the use of the "erase" tab in disk utility = high level format = "quick format" ,......or what you are, for some reason calling a "reset"

coxorange wrote:

Can you confirm that after such a "Reset" to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) the drive can be used with Time Machine = no additionally re-format via Disk Utility required?

I don't have a My Book Studio II to test with, but as long as at appears as a single drive in Disk Utility (for instance, as a RAID 1 mirrored pair) & the format is shown as one Time Machine recognizes in System Preferences, like Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then no additional formatting should be necessary. You should be able to do reformat it if you want, though.

Fsck for Mac OS X version 10.9

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/ man8/fsck.8.html#//apple_ref/doc/man/8/fsck

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/ man8/fsck_hfs.8.html

On the “slow time machine backups” indications are that extremely slow Time Machine backups (witnessed same myself on many occasions on several machines) 

this from reports appears to be running:

fsck_hfs -f /dev/disk….

-f When used with the -p option, force fsck_hfs to check `clean' file systems, otherwise it means force fsck_hfs to check and repair journaled HFS+ file systems.

See here:

https://discussions.apple.com/search.jspa?resultTypes=&dateRange=last30days&peop leEnabled=true&q=time+machine+slow&containerType=14&container=2998&username=&ran kBy=relevance&numResults=15

fsck_hfs -- HFS file system consistency check, or first form fsck, is running too long and ejecting or reporting fault –y flagged

which then WD drive mgr. (premise)

-S Cause fsck_hfs to scan the entire device looking for I/O errors.  It will attempt to map the blocks with errors to names, similar to the -B option.

-q Causes fsck_hfs to quickly check whether the volume was unmounted cleanly

Drives are being ejected, then taking long fsck on re-mounting while fsck checks to verify that the external HD was cleanly ejected.  A Mobius loop in a way.   Q flag therefore S, therefore Q possibly.   Unmount, mount again, verify cleanly unmounted.

Hi,

It appears that many of you are more technically minded than me regarding this issue, however I would really appreciate any help you could offer as my WD hard drive had all my video footage of my daugther from birth and as she is only 6 months old I had not had time to edit this and burn to disk. (those of you who are parents will know what I mean).

I use a mac book pro approx 2006.  I had updated to Mavericks when it first came out and there were no issues with the hard drive for weeks. This week I updated to OS x Version 10.9.1 and it has reverted the hard drive to 'My book' and showing that it is empty.

The hard drive was initially partitioned into Time Machine and standard hard drive if this helps.

I am desparate to get the files back and have logged a call with WD.

Any advice on ways to restore this information would be really helpful or if you think it would be possible to get this back etc.

Many thanks in advance

A desparate father.

western Digital is offering some free recovery software and some drives they are personally recovering data on.

* immediately unhook the drive and do NOT write to it at all, nothing.

you had no other copies of this important data anywhere else?  sorry to hear that, that's awful.

being its Xmas time I don't know what WD hours are next week,...get in contact with them ASAP

0. I understand completely about the child's pictuers and movies, horrible.

1. The 2006 MBP's are taking 10.7.5 (Lion) as maximum, so you probably have a 2007 model.

2. TimeMachine backup on the same disk is absotuly to avoid, backups (also TM) must be on a separate disk, otherwise they serve nothing when you have a dead disk. Goo lesson.

3. It seems to me the disk is dead, is this the original disk?. Read Plotinus above for action.

I am curious how you can see an empty disk at all, can you explain?

I have gone to 'get info' on the drive and it is showing the 1TB drive and showing that there is almost 1TB of space.

I really think Apple should have put an update warning before downloading the update as it looks like this has been a known issue for a couple of months.

But to use "getinfo" you have to run OSX, from where?

If you are sure that dat were on the disk, and now suddenly you see that suddenly there is no data, it my be that just the directory is gone/corrupted, and in that case there is a very good chance to recover the data. Do not use the disk at all.

Mavericks is working on may laptop its just that the WD drive has been renamed to 'My book' and its when selecting 'get info' from the My book icon it appears to be empty.

Gameon2007 wrote:

I really think Apple should have put an update warning before downloading the update as it looks like this has been a known issue for a couple of months.

Since your drive was reformatted with the telltale "MyBook" name, you can be sure it was the WD utility software that caused your disaster. Apple neither makes nor distributes this software -- you had to get it from WD (either by download or included with a WD drive) & install it.

As with all such third party software, it is the responsibility of its maker to make sure it is compatible with new OS X releases, & to a lesser extent the responsibility of users to do the same. Apple works with developers to help them do this but even so, not all issues are discovered during testing & unfortunately, that's what happened here.

Once WD became aware of the problem, it sent emails to users who had registered their HD purchase with WD, advising them to either uninstall their software before upgrading to Mavericks, or wait & not install Mavericks until WD (with Apple's help) resolved the issue.

For those users who already had upgraded with the WD software installed, WD advised them to disconnect their external drives ASAP & uninstall the WD software before reconnecting them. For those who had already had their external drives reformatted -- & this apparently does not happen to very many users, relatively speaking -- as mentioned earlier WD offers free data recovery software.

WD also has released updated versions of its utility software which (at least in theory) eliminates the possibility of unexpected reformats. Users that really need the capabilities that software provides can download & install it; otherwise it is best not to use it at all, since Disk Utility & OS X itself provide all the capabilities most users need.

So, while it is completely understandable why you would want Apple to include a warning about  this, it isn't something Apple or WD could have done until the problem was discovered, & once it was it was WD's responsibility to warn its customers about the potential problem its software could cause its customers. It did so to best of its ability, released a fix as soon as it could, & is trying to assist any of its customers who lost their data as a result of using the WD software recover that data.

As already suggested, you need to stop using the drive ASAP & contact WD about getting the recovery software. It would also be a very good idea to review any other third party software you have gotten from any source besides Apple to make sure it is the most up-to-date version available & is fully compatible with Mavericks.

OK, if WD software did a format you can probably recover the data. Here is a rather extensive list of Data Recovery Software:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_data_recovery_software

and here is a comparison of 10 recovery applications for mac:

http://data-recovery-software-review.toptenreviews.com/mac-recovery-software/

But probably not a bad idea to have the WD recovery software, because they really know what happened.

Lex