2012-07-27

Verification should be nondestructive.

For Mac hardware

There's a possible answer in Super User, but it predates Lion so:

I don't know whether badblocks run from a live CD is applicable where Apple_CoreStorage is amongst the types on the device to be checked.

If not applicable from a live CD, then one answer to this question might involve:

libfvde with an installation of any compatible OS that can run bad blocks.

Less exotically, I'll offer two answers that do not involve libfvde.

Background

Whilst I mention troublesome disks below, I don't seek help with those disks.

This question seeks answers that may be generalised to anyone who would like to check a disk.

Without Mac hardware

I typically use Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) 5.1.1 to run HDAT2 4.5.3.

With Mac hardware

UBCD

Good for some purposes, but not for what I want from HDAT2.

If you know of a way to make HDAT2 run with, say, a MacBookPro5,2: that'll make a great answer.

ZEVO

Giving disks to ZFS instead of HFS Plus simplifies discovery of errors in space that is used, without attention to unused space. On at least two of my disks, a scrub following a Time Machine backup to ZFS has revealed what OS X alone can not: errors affecting bands within the sparse bundle disk image used by Time Machine.

S.M.A.R.T.

OS X SAT SMART Driver is useful, but not applicable to all types of external drive.

For an external drive where S.M.A.R.T. status is verified, according to Disk Utility, scrub finds errors … and so on.

For this question

Prefer a nondestructive check of all space (all blocks of a disk)

without a change of file system.

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