HT204942: About the security content of OS X Yosemite v10.10.4 and Security Update 2015-005

Learn about About the security content of OS X Yosemite v10.10.4 and Security Update 2015-005
chiarov
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: I ran this update and it bricked my computer! My 3 TB fusion drive (128 GB SSD + 3TB 7200rpm drive) no longer works. I've been struggling with trying to get it back online for over a week now and running into all kinds of issues with the SSD.

SMART status of both drives are OK.

I can see the SSD in Diskutil.

But whenever I try to erase or partition it, I end up getting an error saying "Unable to write to the last block of the device."

I tried using the command line diskutil to write zeros to the drive and got this error "underlying error: 5: POSIX reports: input/output error".

 

Everything was working fine until the update. What happened was that the update hung my computer for about 6 hours. The progress bar just stopped and I finally decided to do a hard reboot. BIG MISTAKE but I didn't know what else to do.

 

I have a Time Machine backup, but I can't even format the SSD now. Any ideas? I'm about to order a new SSD but I don't think the drive is really the problem since SMART status says it's OK and it seems pretty coincidental that it happened during this update:

 

HT204942: About the security content of OS X Yosemite v10.10.4 and Security Update 2015-005

Learn about About the security content of OS X Yosemite v10.10.4 and Security Update 2015-005

iMac (27-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), fusion drive, 128 SSD + 3 TB

Posted on Jul 6, 2015 10:20 PM

by chiarov,Solvedanswer
chiarov chiarov
Level 1 (0 points)
A:

No there was nothing about repairing the Fusion drive. It seems like in the whole ordeal the system lost all recollection that the two drives were a Fusion drive. I tried reinitializing them as Fusion drives following the standard process here but that failed too: http://www.macworld.com/article/2014011/how-to-make-your-own-fusion-drive.html

 

Last night I opened up the machine and replaced the SSD with a new one then reinstalled from my Time Machine backup overnight. Everything seems to be back to normal but I only did a quick check this morning before I left for work.

 

I investigated the old SSD and the connectors (both SATA and power) were damaged. It looked like the plastic around the connectors on the SSD side of the connection got brittle and broke (perhaps due to excessive heat cycling?) Pretty fluke thing if you ask me, but I guess it might not have been related to the software update after all.

 

I made sure to locate the new SSD a little further away from the heat source and a little closer to the conventional hard drive.

 

BTW, I mis-typed earlier and it was 10.9.5 update that originally caused the problem.

Posted on Jul 8, 2015 9:29 AM

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chiarov

Q: I ran this update and it bricked my computer! My 3 TB fusion drive (128 GB SSD + 3TB 7200rpm drive) no longer works. I've been str ... more

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  • Helpful answers

  • by babowa,

    babowa babowa Jul 6, 2015 11:02 PM in response to chiarov
    Level 7 (32,217 points)
    iPad
    Jul 6, 2015 11:02 PM in response to chiarov

    You do know that you cannot erase the drive you are booted into? I don't have an answer for you except that if you were booted into another drive and it did not work, it is mostly likely a fusion drive problem. I had one for about a week and had a problem trying to erase it (the iMac was being returned as a DOA) - I finally wound up having to boot into my clone and erase the drive from there. I can't help any further than that - hopefully someone else will chime in; in the meantime, try to search for fusion drive formatting problems or something similar.

  • by chiarov,

    chiarov chiarov Jul 6, 2015 11:05 PM in response to babowa
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 6, 2015 11:05 PM in response to babowa

    Yup, I booted from another drive connected via USB. Still nothing. Diskutility is having no trouble with the 3 TB drive, just the 128 GB SSD.

  • by greg sahli,

    greg sahli greg sahli Jul 7, 2015 6:48 AM in response to chiarov
    Level 7 (25,400 points)
    Jul 7, 2015 6:48 AM in response to chiarov

    I'm not sure I have a fix - but a question...

    Did the updater say it needs to fix your Fusion drive?

    or, Did Disk Utility tell you it needed to fix the Fusion drive? (even though you may not have been using it as a Fusion drive).

     

    Read:

    http://blog.macsales.com/15619-special-note-for-adding-an-ssd-to-a-2012-mac-mini

    http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/75680/what-happens-when-you-remove-or-l ose-the-ssd-from-a-fusion-drive

  • by chiarov,

    chiarov chiarov Jul 7, 2015 10:59 AM in response to greg sahli
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 7, 2015 10:59 AM in response to greg sahli

    Hmm, I'm not sure I understand the question but basically it was Disk Utility which identified the problem.

     

    The updater said there was just a standard security update for OS X 10.10.4 > 10.10.5 plus updates for Safari, iTunes and maybe some others. After delaying them a day or two, I finally went ahead and attempted to install the updates through the standard App Store updater.

     

    That's when things went awry. The update hung mid-way through and I was forced to do a hard reboot. That hard-reboot seemed to do something odd to the Fusion drive because the system would no longer boot.

     

    When I finally was able to boot into recovery mode, I no longer saw my Fusion drive in the list, but rather two separate drives. I tried running disk repair on both, but the SSD kept giving errors.

     

    I ordered a new SSD from Amazon today and will install it tonight. I was trying to avoid that as opening up the iMac requires a bit of effort, but I've tried everything possible I could find on the internet and nothing has worked.

  • by greg sahli,Helpful

    greg sahli greg sahli Jul 7, 2015 1:46 PM in response to chiarov
    Level 7 (25,400 points)
    Jul 7, 2015 1:46 PM in response to chiarov

    OK - so it does seem to be a Fusion Drive issue.

    Others have reported weird issues. I'd give it one more try, booted from a different volume, to repair your Fusion Drive:

    http://www.cnet.com/news/disk-utility-may-combine-custom-drive-setups-on-some-ma cs/

  • by babowa,

    babowa babowa Jul 7, 2015 2:06 PM in response to chiarov
    Level 7 (32,217 points)
    iPad
    Jul 7, 2015 2:06 PM in response to chiarov

    Just as a side note: there is no update to 10.10.5 as there is no 10.10.5 - 10.10.4 is the latest and current version of Yosemite.

  • by chiarov,

    chiarov chiarov Jul 7, 2015 2:34 PM in response to greg sahli
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 7, 2015 2:34 PM in response to greg sahli

    @greg sahli -

     

    Interesting, thanks for the article. Mine is a mid-2010 iMac 27" that did not come with a Fusion drive, but I added it manually later. So that article is very relevant. However, I have booted from a USB volume and tried repairing from there as well, but still having no luck. In fact, when I click on my SSD in the drive list, the Verify and Repair buttons are completely grayed out.

     

    I've tried adding a partition, formatting, just about everything but nothing is working. It currently shows the SSD and HD as two different drives.

     

    Maybe I should try a verify/repair using the diskutil command prompt if there is a way to do that and avoid the grayed out buttons.

     

    I had previously tried a secureErase using the diskutil command and got the following result:

     

    diskutil secureErase 0 /dev/disk0

     

    Error: -69759: Securely erasing data to prevent recovery failed

    Underlying error: 5: POSIX reports: Inputs/output error

  • by greg sahli,

    greg sahli greg sahli Jul 7, 2015 8:41 PM in response to chiarov
    Level 7 (25,400 points)
    Jul 7, 2015 8:41 PM in response to chiarov

    I've never done this - when you boot from the external, do you see the repair Fusion Drive choice anywhere?

    I hope you have a backup -- if you do, maybe try partitioning from scratch and re-installing and recovering.

    I have an SSD and HDD - I don't use the Fusion drive system by Apple. Instead, I use links to use data folders on the HDD (Movies, Music, Documents, but not Applications).

    As recommended here:

    http://blog.macsales.com/24915-splitting-your-data-an-alternative-to-fusion

  • by chiarov,Solvedanswer

    chiarov chiarov Jul 8, 2015 9:29 AM in response to greg sahli
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 8, 2015 9:29 AM in response to greg sahli

    No there was nothing about repairing the Fusion drive. It seems like in the whole ordeal the system lost all recollection that the two drives were a Fusion drive. I tried reinitializing them as Fusion drives following the standard process here but that failed too: http://www.macworld.com/article/2014011/how-to-make-your-own-fusion-drive.html

     

    Last night I opened up the machine and replaced the SSD with a new one then reinstalled from my Time Machine backup overnight. Everything seems to be back to normal but I only did a quick check this morning before I left for work.

     

    I investigated the old SSD and the connectors (both SATA and power) were damaged. It looked like the plastic around the connectors on the SSD side of the connection got brittle and broke (perhaps due to excessive heat cycling?) Pretty fluke thing if you ask me, but I guess it might not have been related to the software update after all.

     

    I made sure to locate the new SSD a little further away from the heat source and a little closer to the conventional hard drive.

     

    BTW, I mis-typed earlier and it was 10.9.5 update that originally caused the problem.

  • by greg sahli,

    greg sahli greg sahli Jul 8, 2015 1:39 PM in response to chiarov
    Level 7 (25,400 points)
    Jul 8, 2015 1:39 PM in response to chiarov

    Well, it's good to have a plan (that worked) - 'cause I'm out of ideas!

  • by babowa,

    babowa babowa Jul 8, 2015 2:11 PM in response to chiarov
    Level 7 (32,217 points)
    iPad
    Jul 8, 2015 2:11 PM in response to chiarov

    Glad to hear you figured it out - after my one week fiasco with a fusion drive, I won't have another.