reformatting as APFS - An internal error has occurred. : (-69626)

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ddokoto Author

Level 1

8 points

reformatting as APFS - An internal error has occurred. : (-69626)

I attached an external USB connected Seagate 300GB hard drive. It was previously used as a backup using HFS+.

Now running MacOS 11.6.2 on a macmin.

SuperDuper! now declares the backup disk must be APFS.

Reformatting as GUID/APFS fails in a similiar manner (-69626) to the previous query shown below.

FirstAid passes successfully.

Reformatting after the first attempt fails by selecting the volume fails the same way.

This was asked back in 2019 with the wrong answer. The system is not restricted to SSDs. It works on internal and external hard drives.

I am trying to reformat my backup disc to APFS since repartitioning seems to work, but get the (-69626) error again.

It seems the disk has no physical problems. This is a reformatting software issue. Seems wrong that "Formatting disk3s2 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" is shown although APFS is selected.

Anyone got any ideas please.

-D

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Erasing “Maxtor 6L250R0 Media” (disk2) and creating “Bill's Backup”

Unmounting disk

Creating the partition map

Waiting for partitions to activate

Formatting disk2s2 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name Bill's Backup

Initialized /dev/rdisk2s2 as a 233 GB case-insensitive HFS Plus volume with a 24576k journal

Mounting disk

Creating a new empty APFS Container

Unmounting Volumes

Switching disk2s2 to APFS

Creating APFS Container

tx_flush:928: xid 1 sync/barrier failed: 5

tx_mgr_free_tx:197: Trash unfinished pending tx, xid range = 0x1 - 0x1

newfs_apfs: unable to format /dev/disk2s2: Input/output error

failed to finish first transaction: 5 - Input/output error

An internal error has occurred. : (-69626)

Operation failed…

Posted on Aug 30, 2022 06:46 PM

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Answer 1

ddokoto Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 2, 2022 07:29 PM in response to HWTech

OK, I get the limitations of First Aid. I suspect there is a sector of the disk not used in JHFS+, but used by APFS.

I bought a new 1TB SSD (USB) and it formatted without issue.

Backup was successful using SuperDuper!

The remaining question is why the SSD was not recognized as a startup disk. The old 300GB USB hard drive was recognized and bootable. This is the first time I've used an SSD. Something I am missing about BIg Sur. Any ideas?

I simply invoked the startup disk pref and it only showed the main MacMini harddrive as selectable, i.e. no SSD. Is that sufficient to determine if the SSD is bootable?

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Answer 2

Owl-53

Level 10

100,117 points

Aug 31, 2022 06:40 AM in response to ddokoto

Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support (CA)

The important element is View >> View ALL and choose the Upper Most Drive by Manufacture Name

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Answer 3

ddokoto Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 31, 2022 11:24 AM in response to Owl-53

This was exactly done as specified. The APFS container creation error shown is the result of the erasure. So your suggested method fails as the issue was originally specified.

I tried erasing the media multiple times specifying GUID partitioning with APFS volumes. Always had an error. Tried via the GUI and the command line which made no difference.

Curiously "first aid" never revealed a physical disk error. Formatting as JHFS+ always succeeded.

SuperDuper! support suggests there is a physical disk error preventing the APFS volume creation. Unknown why JHFS+ volume creation succeeds where APFS container does not.

Solution is to try another disk. I have to buy one first.

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Answer 4

HWTech

Level 9

66,686 points

Sep 2, 2022 04:53 PM in response to ddokoto

ddokoto wrote:

Curiously "first aid" never revealed a physical disk error.

First Aid does not check the physical drive. First Aid only performs a file system check.

To check the health of the drive try running DriveDx. You will need to install a special USB driver to attempt to access the health information on the external drive. However, even with the special USB driver some USB chipsets used by USB adapters, drive docks, and enclosures will not allow the necessary communication to access a USB drive's health information. Post the complete text report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.

Formatting as JHFS+ always succeeded.

SuperDuper! support suggests there is a physical disk error preventing the APFS volume creation. Unknown why JHFS+ volume creation succeeds where APFS container does not.

Definitely weird. Would be interesting to know the reason for the difference, but we will probably never know.

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Answer 5

HWTech

Level 9

66,686 points

Sep 4, 2022 05:26 PM in response to ddokoto

Just noticed you are using a Maxtor drive. Maxtor has not been around in a long time. That has to be an extremely old and very slow hard drive. Plus depending how much it has been used it is possible it is worn out or failing. I personally would not use this as a boot drive. If the drive is still healthy, then it may be fine for a backup drive although restores will likely be extremely slow from such an old drive.

Also, making bootable clones is pretty much deprecated now. While it is still possible on the Intel Macs if you use the cloning software in a very specific way (SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner), there is no guarantee this will work with the next major version of macOS or even the next minor update to Big Sur or Monterey. There are already multiple reports that bootable clones are no longer an option with M1/M2 Apple Silicon Macs after a recent minor macOS Monterey update. See this article from the developer of CCC for some details and best practices going forward (cannot find the other article):

https://bombich.com/kb/ccc6/cloning-macos-system-volumes-apple-software-restore

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