Q: Mavericks corrupts external hard drive

The hard drives are not the issue at all

It's the FireWire and thunderbolt interfaces, the SATA bridges and firmware

In some cased the WD software

I've tested over 30 bare HD bricks on mavericks, all work fine

RAID 0 and raid 1 and raid 5 etc etc all appear affected by this if thunderbolt and FW

Are you trying to help???

Ive been testing 2 borrowed Lacie (seagate) ext. drives, so YES.  So far Ive only found the non-sleep issue on external HD, which is a power issue from the port not sleeping the drive.

Im certainly not being paid to do so by anyone.

Ive already tested 30+ conventional HD I have out of the 100 Hard Drives I have laying around ...to test the rest is absurd, .....HD arent the issue whatsoever.

However I had to borrow those 2 since I dont use Firewire or WD Raid arrays, and dont use thunderbolt drives.

lots of HD require the need for HD docks, interface bridges and complex failure point software on HD has always been a key elmination point in private use of many HD.

The problem is not only with RAID systems, but also with single hard disk.

I have an old external drive WD 500 GB PATA Firewire and also this has been canceled at the first start with the Mavericks.

Anyway I'm recovering slowly everything from my WD MyBook-4TB with Data Rescue 3.

I can hardly wait several weeks before Apple and WD solve the problem.

mducci67 

The problem is not only with RAID systems, but also with single hard disk.

Yes, Ive noted same, and ive seen no exceptions to any firewire or thunderbolt non-RAID single disk externals.

however Ive also not noted anyone who has anything OTHER THAN a WD Mybook who has had data corruption..........rather only a HD that wont sleep.

I'm currently awaiting a Genius Bar appointment to see what Apple has to say about my Toshiba USB HD not mounting, pending outcome of that visit, I'm a few walking steps from BestBuy to grab a housing and go that route. Will let you know what they have to say.

darrenfromwoodstock 

I'm a few walking steps from BestBuy to grab a housing and go that route.

Beware of the USB 2.5" dynex enclosures sold at Best Buy,.....I cant recall in 20 years seeing a more "trust it to fail" piece of hardware.

I got 10 of them free year or so ago, ....3 of them failed within 1 hour of each other, dead SATA bridge cards.  Seen many more fail since on other people

You can almost set your watch by it that it will fail after about 600gig of data transfer.

same Dynex enclosure pictured bottom right:

This is the only decent external USB HD 2.5" enclosure Ive found

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Anker-2-5-Inch-USB-3-0-eSATA-to-SATA-Hard-Drive-Disk-HDD -External-Enclosure-/321085534744?pt=US_Drive_Enclosures_Docks&hash=item4ac23072 18

as I've mentioned above I encountered the same problem, but with the combination Firewire MyBook Studio II + WD Software + USB Mybook + Mavericks. So it can't really be Firewire / Thunderbolt related for USB is also affected.

correct, i stated somewhere in here that outside of firmware on firewire/thunderbolt SATA interfaces ..., its also possible WD software.

All varieties of RAID seem affected,.....any manner of NON Western Digital Firewire and Thunderbolt drives appear affected but ONLY in the sense of not going to sleep, not data corruption

Hard Drive corruption is currently only appearing in WD Mybook enclosures and/or WD drives using WD software from all indications......at least at this point from indications

I'm experiencing the similar problem (or shall we call it disaster?) since this morning. (https://discussions.apple.com/message/23544090?ac_cid=op123456#23544090)

...

I keep seeing that people are trying to locate the source of the problem... To my knowledge, Time Machine is the only application that has all the privileges to wipe and overwrite and external drive on my system...

I recon that Apple Team should also be looking at Time Machine... I've disabled it...

...

Wish you all good luck. It seems we all need it.

Sgt. Pepper, thank you for the insight, I've been trying to parse the posts for help from the flood of fluff PlotinusVeritas keeps posting.

I needed to know if this was affecting WD disks on USB because PV kept yammering on and on about SATA bridge failures and how the Firewire/Thunderbolt firmware/WD software was the problem.

PV, don't take anything personally, but I and others know the scope of the problem, please stop posting until a workable solution is found.

In a nutshell, don't plug in a RAID disk to Mavericks.

I am going to do some testing with this, wish me luck!

I only had backups on my WD Elements HD, but after installing Mavericks time machine would not work and the disk was not recognised. After reformatting the HD my Mac wouldn't recognise it properly (it was showing up as an orange icon) so I reset the SMC on my Mac - this appears to have fixed the problem for me, it is now recognising the HD and backing up properly.

Did you have WD DRIVE MANAGER installed before the format?

Contrary to what chattphotos has stated, which is partially correct, not all drives affected are RAID arrays.

An addendum to his comment is : dont plug in a RAID array or any HD that has had WD DRIVE MANAGER utilized at this point

Apparently many WD and non-WD Thunderbolt and Firewire HD are affected but ONLY as per not being put to sleep,...NOT data corruption.

I'm having trouble with MyPassport after the mavericks update. MyBook with my backups works fine but MyPassport does not show up in finder. Also a USB drive i have no longer shows up in finder. I am currently trying data rescue 3 but thats going to take 20 hours. If anyone finds out any solutions let me know! I have data that Idont want to lose!

I want to say THANKS to PlotinusVeritas for all his wonderful help. He is a deep, deep well of knowledge. He sheds light on this matter for all us disciples so what we can find our way in these dark times. I wish he could post on every forum on the entire internet and help even more people. Thank you, thank you, thank you. In a way you are like a modern Jesus. Praise the lord.