Partitioning External HD Failed!

New iMac, trying to use existing external HD (newertech 150GB) as a Time Machine backup (yeah, I realize now it's too small), was attempting to partition it to GUID Partition Table, as recommended somewhere else in support. It failed (input/output error) and now the HD isn't available at all. It shows up in Disk Utility, but not it's subname (and the drive doesn't appear on my desktop), and it isn't available for either First Aid, and partitioning attempts continue to fail. I restarted, unhooked all the other USBs hanging off the drive, and have it connected via Firewire and USB. Can I get this drive back to use in any form? Thanks.

Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.

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Seagate external drive: Partition map check failed because no slices were found

I have a 3TB Seagate Expansion external backup drive connected to my Retina Macbook Pro via USB. The disk will not eject from a regular Finder window - it will only eject from Disk Utility. Backups seem to otherwise be running fine. I tried to verify/repair the disk in Disk Utility, and I got the following error: "Partition map check failed because no slices were found." I am able to verify/repair the partition without any problem, and no errors are found.
I'm concerned about relying on a backup drive that may be heading south. Here is the output from diskutil info:
diskutil info disk3
   Device Identifier:        disk3
   Device Node:              /dev/disk3
   Part of Whole:            disk3
   Device / Media Name:      Seagate Expansion Desk Media
   Volume Name:              Not applicable (no file system)
   Mounted:                  Not applicable (no file system)
   File System:              None
   Content (IOContent):      GUID_partition_scheme
   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 USB
   SMART Status:             Not Supported
   Total Size:               3.0 TB (3000592977920 Bytes) (exactly 5860533160 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Free Space:        Not applicable (no file system)
   Device Block Size:        4096 Bytes
   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         Not applicable (no file system)
   Ejectable:                Yes
   Whole:                    Yes
   Internal:                 No
   OS 9 Drivers:             No
   Low Level Format:         Not supported

@ Allan Eckert: Unfortunately, reformatting is out of the question, I have 5 years of work on this!
@ Loner T: Yes, the firmware did successfully upgrade after router reboot and a bit of troubleshoot.
Thanks for the quick replies. Keep 'em coming!

External drive error, does not mount: "Partition map check failed because no slices were found"

Hardware: MacBook late 2009 (2.26Ghz Core 2 Duo 2 GB RAM 250GB HDD) running 10.9.4, Hackintosh MacPro (3.29Ghz i3 16GB RAM 1TB HDD) running 10.9.4, external 3 TB Seagate Backup+ drive
As you can can see from the screenshot below,
The external drive was initially plugged in a Netgear WNDR4500 router by USB to be used as NAS. I was in the middle of updating the firmware when there was a power outage. Upon reboot, the drive no longer mounts, whatever it is plugged in (router, Mac, PC, etc.).
I ran DiskUtility on the partition map and volume, same errors. Here's an what I see:
As you can see above, the "Mount" icon is greyed out and I get the error message "Partition map check failed because no slices were found". If I select "the Archive" partition, the "Mount" icon is not greyed out but clicking it doesn't do anything. My HDD is basically unreadable.
I issued a few Terminal commands to see what was the problem, here are the results:
What can I do?
Currently running analysis on TestDisk and it is 50% after 48hrs. Need some help!

@ Allan Eckert: Unfortunately, reformatting is out of the question, I have 5 years of work on this!
@ Loner T: Yes, the firmware did successfully upgrade after router reboot and a bit of troubleshoot.
Thanks for the quick replies. Keep 'em coming!

Disk utility gives "Error: Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size"

I am getting the following error when running Disk Utility (under ML) on an exteral USB hard drive:
Error: Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size.
I get thsi when I ask Disk Utility to "Repair Disk" at the top level of the disk hierarchy (i.e. not on one of the partitions within the disk but on the disk itself). I was not getting this error with Lion on the same disk before I upgraded from Lion to ML.
It seems like a bug in ML. I found websites where they suggest that you just run Lion's Disk Utility and it will show the disk to be fine.
Any thoughts?

So, I finally seemed to have resolved things with the Seagate 4TB Firewire external drive. If you Google about, you will find a thread on Seagate's own support forum that describes how to disable the sleep function on the drive. You CANNOT ALLOW THE DRIVE TO SLEEP WHILE CONNECTED TO YOUR MAC.
After a lot of reading, here's what I think is happening: the drive goes to sleep, after some period of inactivity, and when you shutdown your Mac, OS X tries to write something to the drive as part of the dismount / disconnect / shutdown process. That fails in some manner, leaving the drive 'corrupted' at the filesystem or partition level.
Then, on the next boot-up, Mountain Lion tells you that it cannot repair the drive and it mounts as read only. Your only fix at that point is to re-partition / re-format and start over (which is big fun with 3TB of data to copy back on to the drive).
If you prevent the drive from sleeping, whenever it's connected to the MacBook, then the above process doesn't occur and voila, the drive just works. So far, I haven't had any problems with about a week of starting / shutting down my MacBook connected to the offending drive (translation: I was going to return the drive, but the problem is clearly with Mac OS X Mountain Lion).

DISK UTILITY Error: Partition map repair failed...

Hi all,
I purchased a new SEAGATE BACKUP PLUS 3T USB3.0 drive - and formatted GUID 1 partition - then ran repair disk and it showed with = "Error: Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size"
And I also tried 4 partitions but no help
And I also tried formatting same on older 10.6 mac with no errors - then came back to 10.8 and error shows there...
Can some folks please try this on there own setups to see how widespread this is...
Criteria...
1 - ML 10.8.2
2 - Large external drive 2T or greater
Q: Has anyone experienced this and has a possible solution?
Thanks

HI all,
This issue has been in discussion (actively) since last August here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4218970?start=0&tstart=0
After months and months of new reports, it's pretty clear that this is an Apple Mountain Lion problem and one that Apple needs to address. As one frustrated user noted :
>>There is no consistent solution for a user. Apple has to supply it. All you can do is submit a bug report to
>> http://www.apple.com/feedback
Please, if you are encountering this problem you will save yourself a lot of wasted time and energy simply by joining me and others in asking Apple to fix this problem: Make a bug report.
Thanks!

"attempting to copy to [external drive] failed. the disk could not be read"

this is a problem on my 2x3GHz quad-core intel xeon macPro running os 10.5.7, and itunes 8.2. i have a 1TB external hard drive (firewire 800) that holds all my music for itunes. i have never had any problem with this setup before, until recently.
once, a while back i got an error on my itunes (that popped up without me doing anything.. seemingly random) saying something about not being able to save the itunes library. that went away after a restart, and hasn't returned.
BUT a new problem now happens any time i try to add more music to my itunes library. i have always added music to itunes by setting up my preferences "add file to library" and have the itunes library pointing to my external hard drive. then by dragging the files on-top of a playlist, it sorts and adds the files to my external hard drive. i have been using this process for years without any glitches.
now when i try to drag files into itunes, i get: "attempting to copy to [external drive] failed. the disk could not be read from or written to"
i double checked the read/write privileges on my external drive and nothing has changed since i got it. (it's still read/write access for my user.. and i've even tried putting a "read/write" for "all" as well. no dice)

thanks, that actually doesn't help the issue i'm having.
but now the problem has expanded to finder and everything else. so i'm pretty sure the external hard drive is starting to go out. i'm currently attempting to back up all 700GB of info from the drive.

Using time capsule to back up a partitioned external drive

hi - I am using a 3TB external hard drive to back up my mac with time machine. I have partitioned the external hard drive so that 2TB backs up my mac and the remaining 1TB (well slightly under 1TB) is used to store media files. So far so good, everything works flawlessly. My only problem is that I would like to back up my media files. I had hoped I could use an old 1TB time capsule (works fine) via ethernet cable to back up the media section of my partitioned external hard drive. That does not appear to be possible, certainly via time machine it isn't - any solutions?
Help would be much appreciated.

That does not appear to be possible, certainly via time machine it isn't - any solutions?
Is it just excluded in the TM preferences.. the drive used for backups obviously won't be included but a partition should be possible.
If not, then just copy the files.. one disk to the other.. or use a program like superduper or CCC.. etc.

Is it not recommended to use a partitioned external hard drive for time machine?

1. i hv a 1 tb seagate back up plus hard disc ..,,i want to make partitions for using it for time machine, mac, and window repectively . is it not recommended to use a partitioned drive for time machine? some where i have red that time machine wont be able to restore data from external partioned hard drive in case internal hard drive crashes.
2. if i use the seagate back up plus 1tb for mac only and use time machine to take backup (roughly 250 GB) , then the rest space i cant use to transfer movies, pictures from a PC
3. how should i best use the seagate back up plus hard drive (not seagate back up plus for mac) in a way that i use it for back up , and to work with both mac and PC?

I use a partitioned external drive for Time Machine as well as other things.
How you partition it is a function of yoru needs.
Barry

Can a use a partitioned external hard drive to create a disk image? I tried, doesn't seem to work using disk manager.

Can a use a partitioned external hard drive to create a disk image? I tried, doesn't seem to work using disk manager.

OK, it's very bad computing to use a backup disk for anything but a backup. The reason being is if/when the HD crashes you will have lost not only all your backup but the data files. While I commend you for wanting redundant backup, you really need separate EHDs for doing so. Format each EHD using Disk Utility to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using the GUID parttition. When you connect, OS X will ask if you want to use that drive as a Time Machine backup drive, select yes and then let it backup. On the second EHD format the same way however do not use TM as a backup, this time I'd suggest an app such as SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to make a clone of the internal HD. Leave both EHDs connected and TM will backup new or changed files automatically on a hourly basis. The clone you will need to set to backup on the schedule you want. For example I have my SuperDuper EHD set to backup only changed or updated files at 2AM every day.
The advantage of a clone is that if the computers internal HD crashes you can boot from a clone and continue working, TM will not do that but it's great for keeping an archive of all files. So if you want a version of a file from many months ago, TM will help you locate and restore it.

Partition map check failed because no slices were found for WD My Book 1140 media

Have been using a WD My Book 3TB HD which was partitioned into three 1TB partitions for almost a year. Now when I try to access it via my MacBook Pro I am getting the following error message "Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting; Error: Partition map check failed because no slices were found". Does anybody have any suggestions on how to repair this problem and salvage information stored on it?

I am also experiencing this problem.
4TB Hitachi Deskstar. Internal. Disk not readable error on boot.
"Partition map check failed becuase no slices were found" error when I attempt to verify or repair with Disk Utility.

Cannot access external data , Failed to get the document information.

Hi All,
In my dashboard there are live office connections which has optional prompts defined in SAP BI. I have bound the cells to these prompts in live office object properties.
There are no errors while refreshing the LO connections from excel sheet.
But when i run that dashboard and give BLANK value for that prompt then it throws the error :
Cannot access external data , Failed to get the document information. (LO 26315).
Reply highly appreciated.
Thanks & Regards,
DJ

Hi Hardik,
I am building a similar solution as yours connecting webi reports to Bex queries and reading the webi data through live office into the dashboards. I am using almost similar versions as yours - BW 7.1 SP5, BO 4.1 SP4, Dashboards and Live Office SP4 versions. I am facing issues setting up the live office connections itself. I create the Live office connections within an excel and when I try to import this excel spreadsheet into my dashboard designer, it runs forever and crashes.
Could you please list out the steps you performed to get the Dashboard to preview live office data? Do you have OLAP connections for BW cubes and created WebI reports using these connections or You created a Universe on top of the Bex Queries?
It would be great if you could share the steps performed.
With respect to your issue, check if the report engine service is running. Do you have any error message details apart from this error?
Thanks.
Regards,
Rohini.

Time Machine running on Leopard killed a partitioned external HD. Is there a fix?

I partitioned the 3 TB external hard drive into four partitions to use with Leopard's Time Machine. The partition I was using for Time Machine was 300 GB. Time Machine required 55 GB for the backup. When almost finished I received the following error:
Time Machine Error
Unable to complete backup. The backup volume may have been ejected or disconnected from your computer.
After receiving the error the drive is not recognized by the computer.
Please help.

Hi BDAqua,
Returned the drive & got a new one. It is working without partitioning.
Best Buy said that Leopard won't support a partitioned external hard drive, the answer is to upgrade to Snow Leopard at a cost of $19.99. This works for me.
Thanks for you help!

Updated my OS to Yosemite ver 10.10.3 Need to access iPhoto library in Photos. I have over 400 Mega pictures on a partitioned external drive. Tried dragging but no change.

I updated my OS to 10.10.3. but now can't access my iPhoto library in Photo.
I have an iMac (20 inch, Mid 2007) with a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 667 MHz DDRs SDRAM and have over 400 mega bits of pictures on a partitioned external drive: 2 TB G-Technology by Hitachi connected by FireWire 800 to my iMac. My iPhoto application no longer reveals what version of iPhoto I have, but it was last updated on Dec 14, 2013 with a 1.7 GB file.
Tried dragging from its place on external hard drive.
When I go into the iPhoto it says it is not compatible with OS X Yosemite but the link offered to App Store says they do not have an update.
Help?

Apple dropped both iPhoto and Aperture with the Yosemite release, and I am not happy about that as I used Aperture, but try holding down the option key when you click on the Photos icon. That should bring up a box asking what library you want to connect to. In my case it had both Aperture and Photos. But there is also a choice called "other" that I would think would allow you to navigate to where your library is located and select it.

My time machine 3 TB HD was encryption enabled and it took forever. I tried reformattiing, it is online, but, get this Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size. Any comments appreciated.

My time machine 3 TB HD was encryption enabled and it took forever. I tried reformattiing, it is online, but, get this Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size. Any comments appreciated.

This issue has been in discussion (actively) since last August here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4218970?start=0&tstart=0
After months and months of new reports, it's pretty clear that this is an Apple Mountain Lion problem and one that Apple needs to address. As one frsutrated user noted :
>>There is no consistent solution for a user. Apple has to supply it. All you can do is submit a bug report to
>> http://www.apple.com/feedback
Please, if you are encountering this problem you will save yourself a lot of wasted time and energey simple by joining me and others in asking Apple to fix this problem: Make a bug report.
Thanks!

How do I restore from Time Machine on a partitioned external HD?

My HD crashed and was replaced on my IMAC with OSX 10.6.8. I wanted to restore using Migration Assistant from Time Machine I saved on a partitioned external HD. The external HD has the back-up from my OSX 10.6.8 and another older desktop using OS 10.4.6. Migration Assistant only shows the older OS back-up on the external HD.
I tried ejecting the older HD but when I initiate MA it shows it again. When I changed the partition label so that the OS system I needed was first alphabetically, it made no difference. How do I get MA to recognize the right partition in the external HD

Can you see the 10.6 backup in Finder? Try inheriting the 10.6 backup, then try again with MA.
Inherit a Backup
Inherit a Backup (2)

Partitioning External HD Failed!

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