How to encrypt a disk where diskutil cs convert reports “a problem”, leaves disk unreadable

core-storagedisk-utilityencryptionhard drivepartition

I'm trying to encrypt my Time Machine backup volume, but diskutil refuses, and leaves the disk unreadable (but repairable using Linux). How can I proceed?

It's a Western Digital Elements 107C 3TB USB3 disk.

It has a single HFS+ partition and has been working fine.

diskutil verifyDisk and diskutil verifyVolume report no problems. I have also used Alsoft DiskWarrior to repair discrepancies, without problems.

If I try to convert the volume, diskutil report "a problem", like this:

rb@Silverbird$ /usr/sbin/diskutil cs convert /Volumes/RB3TB1/
Started CoreStorage operation on disk4s2 RB3TB1
Resizing disk to fit Core Storage headers
Creating Core Storage Logical Volume Group
Attempting to unmount disk4s2
Switching disk4s2 to Core Storage
Waiting for Logical Volume to appear
Mounting Logical Volume
A problem occurred; undoing all changes
Switching partition from Core Storage type to original type
Undoing creation of Logical Volume Group
Reclaiming space formerly used by Core Storage metadata
Error: -69842: Couldn't mount disk

This leaves the disk unreadable. diskutil cs list shows the disk as a Core Storage volume which is "online" and "revertible" but it cannot be mounted or acted on, neither can the parent physical volume. Disk Utility hangs on launch when the disk is connected. diskutil repairDisk on the parent volume reports:

Repairing the partition map might erase disk4s1, proceed? (y/N) y
Started partition map repair on disk4
Checking prerequisites
Problems were encountered during repair of the partition map
Error: -69808: Some information was unavailable during an internal lookup

In fact, all access to the disk appears to be broken at this point.

rb@Silverbird$ sudo /usr/sbin/gpt show /dev/disk4
gpt show: unable to open device '/dev/disk4': Input/output error

You can't even read the device using hexdump. The kernel seems mightily confused.

I was able to recover the disk by mounting it in Linux and using the "gdisk" utility to change the partition type from AF02 (Core Storage) to AF00 (HFS+). After that, diskutil verifies both the disk and the volume as OK.

I suspect Apple has a bug where diskutil fails to revert the partition type.

But this gets me no closer to encrypting my backup volume.

Does anyone have any idea what the "problem" might be and how I might proceed?

rb@Silverbird$ /usr/sbin/diskutil info /Volumes/RB3TB1
  Device Identifier:        disk5s2
  Device Node:              /dev/disk5s2
  Whole:                    No
  Part of Whole:            disk5
  Device / Media Name:      RB3TB1

  Volume Name:              RB3TB1

  Mounted:                  Yes
  Mount Point:              /Volumes/RB3TB1

  File System Personality:  Journaled HFS+
  Type (Bundle):            hfs
  Name (User Visible):      Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
  Journal:                  Journal size 229376 KB at offset 0x8f07408000
  Owners:                   Enabled

  Partition Type:           Apple_HFS
  OS Can Be Installed:      Yes
  Media Type:               Generic
  Protocol:                 USB
  SMART Status:             Not Supported
  Volume UUID:              F096E831-F27D-3433-9BBE-6B65F4F69FA5
  Disk / Partition UUID:    FE09034E-6AA0-4490-82A1-1F7E894ACD91

  Total Size:               3.0 TB (3000110108672 Bytes) (exactly 5859590056 512-Byte-Units)
  Volume Free Space:        78.1 GB (78142939136 Bytes) (exactly 152622928 512-Byte-Units)
  Device Block Size:        4096 Bytes
  Allocation Block Size:    4096 Bytes

  Read-Only Media:          No
  Read-Only Volume:         No

  Device Location:          External
  Removable Media:          No

The disk contains around 732000000 files, according to Disk Utility (actually directory entries).

This is OS X 10.11.2, all up to date, based on a clean install of OS X 10.11 last month.

Edit: Here is the output of gpt when the disk is repaired.

rb@Silverbird$ sudo /usr/sbin/gpt -r show /dev/disk3
      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2          4         Pri GPT table
          6      76800      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      76806  732448757      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  732525563      32768      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  732558331          4         Sec GPT table
  732558335          1         Sec GPT header

When the disk was unreadable (after the failed revert) nothing in OS X could read it, including gpt. Linux "gdisk" reported it as having these same partitions, but the second partion with type "AF02" (Core Storage).

Best Answer

The disk is mounted in an enclosure which doesn't properly report a logical block size of 512 bytes. Instead 4096 bytes are used. The disk itself has a physical block size (Device Block Size) of 4096 bytes.

If the disk/volume don't show any errors in Disk Utility, I would assume that CoreStorage and the enclosure & hard disk aren't compatible.

I propose to use another method to encrypt your Time Machine backup:

encrypted sparse image
encrypted sparsebundle image (similar to FileVault1)
encrypted image

Related Solutions

Disk will not mount, but shows up on System Profiler

By SSD and HDD combo do you mean something like a Seagate Momentus?

I'm really confused by you saying that the disk failed (how did it fail?) but then you have connected it by USB and you expect it to work?

The report you posted doesn't show a

Content:    Apple_HFS

as you might expect to see under Volumes, so it appears to have been corrupted.

If data on this volume is vital and you don't mind spending money to get it back then unplug it right away and take it to a professional recovery service.

If it would be just "nice to have back" then you could try using the First Aid tab of Disk Utility, and see if it can recover the partition(s).

I think I messed up the Fusion Drive on the 1TB iMac (with BootCamp)

Theoretically everything is fine with your Fusion Drive. Fusion Drives look like this. Disk0 is your SSD with 121 GB and disk1 is your HDD with ~1 TB (~1.121 TB summed up).

The larger parts of your SSD (disk0s2) and your HDD (disk1s2) are pooled to a CoreStorage LVG (Fusion Drive: disk3) with a size of 967.8 GB. The rest is reserved for EFIs, a Recovery HD (alltogether ~1.3 GB) and your old Windows partition - now probably free space (~152 GB).

The logical volume 'Macintosh HD' (967.8 GB) spans disk0s2 and disk1s2. This is the first 'Macintosh HD' in picture 1. The volume 'Macintosh HD' - it's the one visible on the desktop - should ideally also have about 967.8 GB. This is the second 'Macintosh HD' in picture 1.
In fact it has only 852.67 GB (see picture 3).

In the second picture the logical volume 'Macintosh HD' is the first listed in black, the volume 'Macintosh HD' is the second listed in black, the other two 'Macintosh HD's listed in grey are the parts of your SSD and HDD dedicated to the logical volume 'Macintosh HD'.

In my opinion something went wrong after deleting various partitions with the Bootcamp Assistant/Disk Utility or in Windows.

Preparation:

Detach any external drive (especially your external Time Machine backup drive)
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup.
The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot into a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an apple/akamai server.

I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.

Alternatively you may start from a bootable installer thumb drive (preferably Mavericks or Yosemite) or a thumb drive containing a full system (preferably Mavericks or Yosemite).

Now you may either repair CoreStorage or rebuild your Fusion Drive:

'Repair CoreStorage' (not recommended):

First i would try to check the volume 'Macintosh HD' with Disk Utility. If the volume is corrupted consider a reinstall of Mac OS X.
If the volume is ok quit Disk Utility
Open Terminal and enter diskutil unmountDisk /dev/LVIdentifier and both diskutil unmountDisk /dev/DiskContainingApple_CoreStorageIdentifier
In your case: first diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk3 then diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk0 and diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1
remove the EFI NO NAME partition with gpt remove -i IndexNumberOfEFINoName DiskIdentifier:
gpt remove -i 4 disk1
Remount the CoreStorage disks and then the Logical Volume:
In your case: first diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk0 and diskutil mountDisk /dev/disk1 and then diskutil mount /dev/disk3.

enter gpt -r -vvv show /dev/diskIdentfierOfApple_CoreStorage to get infos of your HDD CoreStorage disk.
In your case: gpt -r -vvv show /dev/disk1
It should look like this:

-bash-3.2# gpt -r -vvv show /dev/disk1
gpt show: /dev/disk1: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512;         blocks=1953525168
gpt show: /dev/disk1: PMBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk1: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B, start=40, size=409600
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC, start=409640, size=1671210848
gpt show: /dev/disk1: GPT partition: type=426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC, start=1671620488, size=1269760
gpt show: /dev/disk1: Sec GPT at sector 1953525167                               
     start          size  index contents                                        
         0             1        PMBR                                            
         1             1        Pri GPT header                                  
         2            32        Pri GPT table                                   
        34             6
        40        409600      1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
    409640    1671210848      2 GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1671620488       1269760      3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1672890248     280634887
1953525135            32        Sec GPT table
1953525167             1        Sec GPT header

The free space on your HDD has 280634887 blocks. Please calculate the biggest block number dividable through 8. That's 280634880 blocks (á 512 bytes) which equals 143685058560 B or ~143.7 GB. Add the size of your HDD CoreStorage Physical Volume (852666400768 B) The result is 143685058560 B + 852666400768 B = 996351459328 B
Resize your HDD CoreStorage physical volume with diskutil cs resizeDisk HDDPVUUID newsize
In your case: diskutil cs resizeDisk 93892BE8-2B7F-4ABD-A4C3-984495DCD98D 996351459328b
Calculate the maximal size of your CoreStorage Logical Volume in diskutil cs list: (size disk0s2) + (size disk1s2) In your case that's 120988852224 B + 996351459328 B = 1117340311552 B. That should be the size of your refreshed Logical Volume Group.
Resize your Logical Volume with diskutil cs resizeVolume LVUUID LVGSize-128 MB In your case that's diskutil cs resizeVolume D237FFDC-7DA4-41D7-AC13-4CC7E5E8C0A0 1117212311552b. If you get an error (There is not enough free space...) choose a smaller size like 1117148311552b.
Quit Terminal and open Disk Utility.
Check your expanded CoreStorage Volume for errors.
Quit Disk Utility, choose your CS volume as startup disk and restart your Mac

'Rebuild Fusion Drive' (recommended if you have a Time Machine backup)

Booted to Internet Recovery Mode open Utilities → Terminal in the menubar and enter:
diskutil cs list to get the CoreStorage listing.
Copy the Logical Volume UUID, it's the fifth listed.
Now delete the Logical Volume with diskutil cs deleteVolume LVUUID.
In your case: diskutil cs deleteVolume D237FFDC-7DA4-41D7-AC13-4CC7E5E8C0A0.
Copy the Logical Volume Group UUID, it's the first listed in the listing of diskutil cs list.
Then delete the Logical Volume Group with diskutil cs delete LVGUUID.
In your case: diskutil cs delete 1EFE58BC-3613-44C4-86EE-D816F3B66E3E
Enter exit and quit 'Terminal'
Open 'Disk Utility'. Enter 'Ignore' if you are asked to fix the drives.
Choose your SSD and partition it: 1 Partition Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), hit the Options button and choose GUID Partiton table and hit OK and Apply.
Please check that the size is ~121 GB

Example:
Choose your HDD and partition it: 1 Partition Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), hit the Options button and choose GUID Partiton table and hit OK and Apply.
Please check that the size is ~1 TB

Example:
Quit Disk Utility and open Terminal
Enter diskutil list

Example (your disk identifiers and sizes are different of course: Your volume SSD probably has the Identifier disk0s2 and the size 121 GB and your volume HDD probably has the Identifier disk1s2 and the size 1.0 TB):
Enter diskutil cs create "Name" IdentifierSSD IdentifierHDD
In your case probably diskutil cs create "Macintosh HD" disk0s2 disk1s2.

Copy the resulting LVGUUID

Example:
Enter diskutil cs CreateVolume LVGUUID jhfs+ "Macintosh HD" 100%.

Example:
Enter diskutil cs list
Check the size of your Logical Volume. It should have the size ~1.121 TB

Example:
Quit Terminal
Open 'Disk Utility' and check your newly created volume for errors
Quit 'Disk Utility'
Attach your external Time Machine backup drive or check this answer if you use NAS or another network share.
Open 'Restore from Time Machine Backup'
Choose the appropriate Time Machine backup and restore your system
Reboot to your restored system.
Unmount and detach your Time Machine backup drive
Open 'Terminal' and enter 'diskutil list'
Check if your 'Recovery HD' is listed.
If your 'Recovery HD' is missing, usually reinstalling your current system with the latest available system installer (e.g. 'Install OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)' if Mavericks is currently installed) will recreate it without loosing any data. AFAIK Recovery Partition Creator 3.8 will NOT create a Recovery HD on CoreStorage volumes.
After reinstalling the system with the latest available system installer open App Store and install the latest security fixes.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Disk will not mount, but shows up on System Profiler

I think I messed up the Fusion Drive on the 1TB iMac (with BootCamp)

Related Question