Serious external drive problems after installing Mavericks

Sounds like your disk was formated (the directory overwriten with an empty one) but is always the case that most of the files are still there as long as you don't keep using the drive.

I have succes recoverying disk with damaged directories before using DiskWarrior but I'm not sure is going to help in your case. Maybe some other third party utility that can do "deleted files recovery" might help you.

Also, if you had any Western Digital software installed it might be a good idea to remove it until WD issues an update.

Data loss is never funny, sorry to hear it happened.

Hi, have not exactly a similar issue but also data loss after Mavericks install on external firewire mounted WD MyBook 2. I realized just a day later that the external WD drive which I use for all my actual data (due to the Raid1 option to prevent drive failure data loss) was completely blank. All WD drivers, firmware and Raid Manager seem to work fine. Installed latest versions nonetheless. No change. Drive mounts normal, in fact everything works just smooth, no errors whatsoever but all data are gone. Have started Disk Drill and it is finding files (5 hours to go for total scan) but I am not sure at this point how helpful this will be to restore all my e.g. Lightroom files in the folder structure etc.. I have no idea what went wrong all just installed fine. I am so frustrated......really. Absolute worst that coudl happen. Have another backup that I do occasionally on another drive but this is missing some holiday pictures and not all data is on there. It could be worse by not having any backup but this is close to desaster......(omitting swaring here which neighbors can hear even). Anybody info on WD driver updates or something that would bring it back?

➕FIrewire & Thunder bolt drives are having issues with Mavericks, avoid same until a fix is issued if you can.

many are reporting same, there is a firewire fault and TB HD on external HD from LaCie (Seagate) and from WD especially.

Technicians are looking into it.

Until there is resolution, consider setting up a USB ext. Time machine HD.

Until then consider confining Mavericks use with USB HD.

Ive tested a very long line of USB HD on Mavericks, all seem fine.

Recommend anyone DO NOT ATTACH any WD MyBook externals (firewire, thunderbolt or otherwise).

I dont have same to test, so I dont know if the problem is in the firmware on the SATA bridge or if its a problem with the WD software

😊

Sorry, I don't think there is going to be anything like an update that will bring the partitions back. to me it sounds like the drive has been formated withouth asking the user by some process.

I haven't used that DiskDrill software before but I have used some other recovery apps with varying results. I would try Disk Warrior but I don't know if it is going to help with a formatd drive, usually works wonders on drives with damaged directories.

I know this doesn't help but there has been a similar problem some years ago with an Os update killing firewire drives. Since then I have always unppluged everything that was non essential before installing mayor updates.

When I upgraded to Mavericks, I got an incompatible software error. It said that the WD Raid Manager software was incompatible. My MyBook 2Tb hard drive wasn't recognised post update and after I reformatted it, the thing is permanently on; it used to go into sleep mode when not being accessed. I suspect this has something to do with the Raid Management software. I can't find a Mavericks update to this software and WD Support are hopeless. I'm currently pondering replacement of this 1 year old drive but that means more expense. Wish I hadn't upgraded to Mavericks now.

I have also experienced corruption using an external USB3 PROBOX 4-bay enclosure under Mavericks. First my Time Machine volume got corrupted, then I started having bizarre problems. I spent a good fraction of my weekend tracking down the problem.

What appears to be happening is that either reads or writes (probably just reads) are getting silently corrupted, often changing a block to be all 0 bytes. I have for example been able to use the Finder to copy a large file from a PROBOX mounted volume to my internal drive twice, and when compared, the copies are different!

I have confirmed this error occurs when connected via both USB3 and USB2. However, when I use a different USB2 2-bay enclosure (a StarTech), everything appears to work fine (x fingers).

The PROBOX worked flawlessly before I upgraded to Mavericks. The hardware hasn't changed, just the software.

So I am forced to speculate that Mavericks has changed something that causes problems with certain USB enclosures.

Thanks, GaryB. Fully agree. Same conclusion. Will fiddle through generic filenames of the recovery to restore the lost files. My suspicion is that Maverick 'forgot' to ask before deleting the external drive. OS update - free, data recovery - more than a weekend. Great, thanks!

Apple please cut down on product diversity otherwise you start failing like MS, probably any company would, but this does not make me feel better.

Robert Woodhead

I have also experienced corruption using an external USB3 PROBOX 4-bay enclosure under Mavericks.

So, i assume you have this product:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817576001

I assume also its a RAID array? Also what sort of software is installed for use of same?

That's the manufacturer, but I have one that looks identical except that it also supports USB3. I am not using it in RAID mode, just the port-multiplier feature to give me access to 4 drives. I used to connect it with eSATA to my old MBP, but when I upgraded that I had to switch to USB3.

I swapped a couple of drives into a 2-drive StarTech USB2 enclosure using the same cable and port that I used to replicate the problem on the PROBOX, and so far it is working flawlessly.

I've been conversing with PROBOX tech support and they've confirmed I have the latest drivers (in fact, I have their latest board, because I had to do a board swap -- the board that came with it when I got the PROBOX a couple of years ago didn't support the final USB3 protocol that Apple uses (or something like that)).

But the tl/dr is: was working fine via USB3 before Mavericks, corrupted two Time Machine drives in 4 days and would silently fail to properly finder-copy files after Mavericks.

Robert Woodhead

I've been conversing with PROBOX tech support and they've confirmed I have the latest drivers

Yours is the first confirmation Ive seen of mass-data corruption on a NON-WD non-RAID array.

Also Firewire and Thunderbolt arent involved here with yours....hmm

There is no indication yet of ANY 'blank bricks' (bare formatted USB connected HD) hard drives being affected and Ive tested a pile of them from diff. Mfg,...though that wouldnt matter, WD, Seagate, Toshiba, Hitachi, a HD is a HD is a HD.,..........(except in quality of mechanical mfg.)

this is all firmware and software related (also possible bridge SATA on sleep issue with TB and FW drives).

Has your data recovery had much success?

The drives that were corrupted and unrepairable by Disk Utility (but still mountable) were Time Machine volumes -- the original one and then the replacement (a fresh new drive). I set aside the original one in case I needed to restore data from it later, put in the new one, and it went bad 2 days later.

The other drive -- the one I used to diagnose this problem -- was a drive I was using to edit some video, so the only files that got written were cache files, new exports of finished videos, and compressions. I tracked down the problem because stuff I was uploading to Vimeo wasn't encoding properly, and I finally downloaded the file Vimeo got and compared it to what I *thought* I'd uploaded.

After that I found that I could simply copy a 5GB file off the PROBOX into the MBP's internal drive a couple of times, and sometimes the copies would be silently corrupted... but not always.

Right now I'm running a TM volume (reformatted the second one) and the volume I was using for testing in a 2-drive enclosure and regularly running Disk Utility to check.