How can I encrypt a drive where cs diskutil convert reports 'a problem', let the unreadable disk?

I try to encrypt my Time Machine backup volume, but diskutil refuses and leaves the disc unreadable (but fixable using Linux).  How can I proceed?

It is a disc of TB USB3 Western Digital Elements 107 3.

It has one HFS partition + and works very well.

diskutil verifyDisk and diskutil verifyVolume don't report any problems.  I also used Alsoft DiskWarrior to repair inconsistencies, 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 unreadable disk.  diskutil cs list shows the drive as a basic storage volume that is "online" and "reversible" but it may not be mounted or acted on, nor can the physical volume of the parent.  Disk utility crashes at startup when the drive is connected.  diskutil repairDisk on volume of parent 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 disc seems 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 cannot read the device using hexdump.  The kernel seems mightily confused.

I was able to recover the disc mounting Linux using the utility 'gdisk' to change the partition type to AF02 (storage of carrots) to AF00 (HFS +).  After that, diskutil checks the disk so the volume as OK.

I think that Apple has a bug where diskutil fails to return the partition type.

But this me no bugs more closely to encrypt my backup volume.

Anyone have any idea what might be the 'problem' and how do I 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 files of about 732000000, according to the disk utility (in reality the directory entries).

This is OS X 10.11.2, day, based on a new install of OS X 10.11 last month.

Hello RPTB1,.

Thank you for using communities of Apple Support.

I see that you are wanting to encrypt your Time Machine backup disk. I see you are trying to do through Terminal or Unix command line, have you tried to use it through the Time Machine configuration and preferences? Take a look at this article and see how it works for you.

OS X El Capitan: choose a backup drive, then set the encryption options

Best regards.

Tags: Mac OS & System Software

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