Can't modify partitions. Options greyed out.

[roblogic1]

Hi,

Bought a used 4 TB Seagate drive, formatted it , check the speed 150 MB/s read/write and made a partition. Apparently it worked perfect.

However after this first partition the drive is behaving erratically. I can not modify partitions anymore nor delete them. Repair disk is not finding any problem either run from the system or from the recovery partition.

I am starting to believe the disk is damaged. Beside the partition problem the disk is behaving fine. Anyone please?

 

[roblogic1]

Is that possible that the problem originates in the fact that my Mac Pro is from 2009 and it does not operate the 4TB drives properly?

 

[Weaselboy]

Is that possible that the problem originates in the fact that my Mac Pro is from 2009 and it does not operate the 4TB drives properly?

It looks like you encrypted the 4TB external. Once encrypted you cannot manipulate partitions at all. You will need to either delete the encrypted volume or turn off encryption in Disk Util to be able to manipulate the partitions.

If you don't need any data on there, the Terminal command below will kill the entire encrypted partition and leave you with a blank drive you can repartition however you want.

diskutil cs delete "CCC 4TB 2"

 

[roblogic1]

Thanks but the drive is not encrypted, I just formatted it made the partition and got the problem. I tried another drive of 4tb seagate hdd and had the same exact problem. Both drives had 2 partitions now and are logical volumes. All options are greyed out. I can only delete the volume but not alter the partitions...
I'd like them to make Guid partitions just like I was doing with smaller drives.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks but the drive is not encrypted, I just formatted it made the partition and got the problem. I tried another drive of 4tb seagate hdd and had the same exact problem. Both drives had 2 partitions now and are logical volumes. All options are greyed out. I can only delete the volume but not alter the partitions...
I'd like them to make Guid partitions just like I was doing with smaller drives.

It is either encrypted or for some reason setup as a core storage logical volume. I can see the logical volume group message there in Disk Util. Either one will cause what you are seeing.

Run this command in Terminal to show the volume layout and post up the output of the command so I can take a look.

diskutil cs list

 

[roblogic1]

Thanks! Tomorrow I'll post this info when I get to the studio.

 

[roblogic1]

Here it is:

Last login: Wed Dec 17 15:34:29 on console
MacBook-Pro:~ admin$ diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (2 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group D39B87F1-BBD7-4543-B0AA-8007FD3C1989
| =========================================================
| Name: CCC 4TB
| Status: Online
| Size: 1001414172672 B (1.0 TB)
| Free Space: 0 B (0 B)
| |
| +-< Physical Volume 2CFEA20E-186C-48BA-ACA3-B4DF8D337129
| | ----------------------------------------------------
| | Index: 0
| | Disk: disk2s2
| | Status: Online
| | Size: 1001414172672 B (1.0 TB)
| |
| +-> Logical Volume Family 406EBC8D-5822-4630-8BCD-8BAE5FCD001A
| ----------------------------------------------------------
| Encryption Status: Unlocked
| Encryption Type: None
| Conversion Status: NoConversion
| Conversion Direction: -none-
| Has Encrypted Extents: No
| Fully Secure: No
| Passphrase Required: No
| |
| +-> Logical Volume 19E24780-131D-48A2-B551-62CB54E3BE50
| ---------------------------------------------------
| Disk: disk3
| Status: Online
| Size (Total): 1001095397376 B (1.0 TB)
| Size (Converted): -none-
| Revertible: No
| LV Name: FILES 1TB
| Volume Name: FILES 1TB
| Content Hint: Apple_HFSX
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 563B738E-CA7A-44C0-B929-68152AFF2602
=========================================================
Name: CCC 4TB 2
Status: Online
Size: 2998894665728 B (3.0 TB)
Free Space: 0 B (0 B)
|
+-< Physical Volume 9A9A2508-2A24-4026-A487-65BDD655F280
| ----------------------------------------------------
| Index: 0
| Disk: disk2s4
| Status: Online
| Size: 2998894665728 B (3.0 TB)
|
+-> Logical Volume Family 4D82F59C-D72D-48B6-836B-A3582B131DB7
----------------------------------------------------------
Encryption Status: Unlocked
Encryption Type: None
Conversion Status: NoConversion
Conversion Direction: -none-
Has Encrypted Extents: No
Fully Secure: No
Passphrase Required: No
|
+-> Logical Volume 6EA05720-0509-43F8-B8FE-88873BEB52BA
---------------------------------------------------
Disk: disk4
Status: Online
Size (Total): 2998575890432 B (3.0 TB)
Size (Converted): -none-
Revertible: No
LV Name: FILES 3TB
Volume Name: FILES 3TB
Content Hint: Apple_HFS
MacBook-Pro:~ admin$

----------

It says Mac book pro but it is a Mac Pro with the system drive cloned from a Mac book pro...Don´t know if it is relevant for the issue.

 

[Weaselboy]

Is that possible that the problem originates in the fact that my Mac Pro is from 2009 and it does not operate the 4TB drives properly?

Looking at that layout and your comment that you just formatted normally got me thinking about your earlier post, and I found this. Apparently it is an issue with the larger drive not being recognized properly in your hardware. There is a workaround in that thread that might work for you.

 

[roblogic1]

Thanks Weaselboy. Following the thread you suggested, I have created a bootable partition of Snow Leopard. I select it as a start up disk in System Preferences but when booting it gets stuck with the Apple Logo... It does not progress. (had to put the original video card to do that)

Now trying to figure out how to boot from the Snow Leopard partition.

 

[roblogic1]

I have run the Terminal command:

diskutil cs delete
followed by the Logical volume group name

and was able to reformat the drive in GUID partitions.

Then I erased the drive to change its name and it became Logical volume again...