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Installed Mavericks and now my system partition needs repair

Hi All,


I upgraded to Mavericks yesterday, but after the install my MBP's performance/responsiveness was substantially degraded.


Today (after reading posts from users experiencing similar issues on the forum) I ran disk utility. After verifying the disk, the utility told me there was a problem with my system partition, and that I would need to run disk utility from recovery mode (cmd + r).


I did so, and when I verify the disk from recovery it returns: "The partition map needs to be repaired because there's a problem with the EFI system partition's file system". When I attempt to repair the partition, I receive an alert that: "Live file system repair is not supported".


Now I can't even boot into the log-in page, and the only area I can access (aside from the blank grey screen with a picture of a folder on it) is the recovery mode. I would really like to avoid re-installing Lion from recovery mode and losing all my programs, settings, etc. Any advice would be much appreciated.


Thanks in advance.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 24, 2013 9:42 AM

Reply
94 replies

Oct 24, 2013 12:01 PM in response to churchj7

Same here. I've been able to verify/repair 'Macintosh HD", but not the Toshiba. Still can't get the OS to boot. Also, can't Archive & Install because recovery mode is trying to install Lion. When I try it, the installation fails because a newer OS (Mavericks, and Mountain Lion before it) are installed.


Seems like a whole lot of people are experiencing HD issues in connection with updating to Mavericks. I really hope Apple releases something on this issue ASAP. My problem is that my MBP is used for work, so I can't sit around for a week or two waiting on Apple.

Oct 24, 2013 2:44 PM in response to churchj7

I'm in the same boat. The issue progressed thusly, immediately after upgrading to Mavericks:


1. Hard-freeze after less than 20 minutes of uptime, sometimes followed by spontaneous power-down.

2. Checking storage from Recovery mode, using Disk Utility, I'm told the EFI partition is shot. Disk Utility refuses to repair a live (that is, "in-use") partition.

3. Booting to Desktop displays only a gray screen with a flashing question-marked folder icon.


I use my Mac for work, too. I support the applications published by a veteran OS X developer, and I'm his sole support asset. A lot of our users may suffer as a result. I'm curious to see what Apple intends to do about such a vicious bug.

Oct 26, 2013 12:33 PM in response to churchj7

Same problem, although system appears to be functioning normally for now. Attempting a repair of the internal drive (on a rMBP) results in the 'live file system'/EFI problem' errors. My external USB3 drive (GPT, HFS+) also became read-only with a bunch of errors shortly after upgrading to Mavericks.


I have a Time Machine backup but I'm not sure how to reinstall such that this problem with the EFI partition will be fixed. Any help?


EDIT -- I booted from a ML Time Machine on an external drive, and did a repair from that. Seems to have fixed everything.

Oct 26, 2013 10:57 PM in response to churchj7

I upgraded to Mavericks, and found every time I attempted to use the keyboard, my macbook pro would crash. I do have two user accounts on the computer, the 2nd one has FileVault running.


No matter what I did, the laptop would crash.


Fortunately I use Carbon Copy Cloner, had my external drive with me and put my laptop back to the last backup, only lost a couple of hours practically nothing.


Are there known issues with Mavericks with two user accounts, FileVault?

Oct 27, 2013 2:24 PM in response to churchj7

Well look like this is still a Beta OS. No known recovery for EFI issue; total data curruption. You will have to wipe your entire drive. I hope you have Mountain Lion or anything thing else bootable, you will need it since reinstalling doesn't absolutely nothing for the issue. Repair is counted out; booting up in Recovery does zip and neither will a backup. Luckily for me I had a 3rd party backup method so all my data will be recovered once I get back up and running with Mountain Lion. I won't bother with Mavericks until it's on version 10.9.5. Good luck!

Oct 27, 2013 8:01 PM in response to churchj7

Mates I'm not going to install Mavericks again. I've had my share of data lost today too last me another long formatting to my 2 Tera Byte Drive. Apple's design is unmatched by anyone. Everything made by Apple has its cost factored in; improvements, features and uniqueness. Having mounds of glitches isn't Apple. The word FREE frightens me now. I wish you all well in contining the use of Mavericks. I'm going to wait for 10.9.6.

Oct 28, 2013 1:11 AM in response to churchj7

similar situation here. My friend tried to use my MBP to diagnose his hard disk, so he took out my SSD from my MBP, checked his, and reinstall SSD. Simple manipulation, but this is when the disaster starts. When it boots, it simply shows a "Recovery" volume, and going in I can only get Disk Utility and so on. Running "df -h" in terminal shows only 2GB of its content. Verify and repair of disk goes fine, but verify and repair of volume is not.


Don't know why the Volume is renamed and corrupted just because of this simple manipulation. Try using some disk data recovery software, but only recover 10% of total data. At first it notify me the EFI problem, now it only says disk cannot be repaired, need formatting and so on.


Looking for a way to retrieve my data.. Thanks advance for any help.. Terrible mistake that I didn't keep a backup beforehand..

Oct 28, 2013 11:55 AM in response to churchj7

My two cents: I upgraded to Mavericks and found the EFI corruption error when verifying permissions immediately afterward. Tried the install a couple of times to make sure it wasn't a fluke. I was unsure how to get Lion back on the laptop, as the Mavericks istaller had updated my HD Recovery to 10.9, and my back up was manually done; I wanted a truly clean install without using migration assistant or Time Machine.


However, by completley erasing my hard drive and doing internet recovery, Lion was available. I'm back in business with a clean install of Lion and won't be trying Mavericks again anytime soon.


Incidently, my OS volume was okay and I could use the computer. As far as I could tell, only the EFI partition was corrupted. Not sure of the long term effects of that, but assume I wouldn't be able to accept firmware updates in the future at the very least, and who knows what else might develop, as several of the other posters here are experiencing. Feel like I got off relatively lucky.


I mostly wanted to point out that the machine's original OS recovery should be available via internet recovery, even after the Mavericks install has removed that option from the HD recovery.

Installed Mavericks and now my system partition needs repair

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