NOT fully read due to "Invalid argument"

[sashkab]

macOS 15.4.1, f3 v9.0 installed via homebrew.

When trying to read the disk, 2TB -- received and error NOT fully read due to "Invalid argument" after reading first file. Does not matter if I start with a first file, or somewhere in the middle. Would always succeed with a single file.

$ f3read --start-at=5 --end-at=5 /Volumes/2TB
F3 read 9.0
Copyright (C) 2010 Digirati Internet LTDA.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.

                  SECTORS      ok/corrupted/changed/overwritten
Validating file 5.h2w ... 2097152/        0/      0/      0

  Data OK: 1.00 GB (2097152 sectors)
Data LOST: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
               Corrupted: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
        Slightly changed: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
             Overwritten: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
Average reading speed: 2.86 GB/s

Started playing with limiting read speed, and would fail slightly after 1GB/s, but will succeed with limit of 1GB/s.

$ f3read --start-at=5 --end-at=7 --max-read-rate=1132864 /Volumes/2TB
F3 read 9.0
Copyright (C) 2010 Digirati Internet LTDA.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.

                  SECTORS      ok/corrupted/changed/overwritten
Validating file 5.h2w ... 2097152/        0/      0/      0
Validating file 6.h2w ... 2097151/        0/      0/      0 - NOT fully read due to "Invalid argument"
Validating file 7.h2w ...       0/        0/      0/      0 - NOT fully read due to "Invalid argument"

  Data OK: 2.00 GB (4194303 sectors)
Data LOST: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
               Corrupted: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
        Slightly changed: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
             Overwritten: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
WARNING: Not all data was read due to I/O error(s)
Average reading speed: 1.07 GB/s

But works with

$ f3read --start-at=5 --end-at=7 --max-read-rate=1048576 /Volumes/2TB
F3 read 9.0
Copyright (C) 2010 Digirati Internet LTDA.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.

                  SECTORS      ok/corrupted/changed/overwritten
Validating file 5.h2w ... 2097152/        0/      0/      0
Validating file 6.h2w ... 2097152/        0/      0/      0
Validating file 7.h2w ... 2097152/        0/      0/      0

  Data OK: 3.00 GB (6291456 sectors)
Data LOST: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
               Corrupted: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
        Slightly changed: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
             Overwritten: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
Average reading speed: 1016.88 MB/s

Couldn't find a way to get more verbose output..

[AltraMayor]

Hi @sashkab,

Based on your report, I hypothesize that you're running into a hardware issue or an operating system bug.

Hardware issue. I'm not familiar with macOS, but on Linux, one runs dmesg to view the kernel log; it may provide the clue you need to find the root cause. Another option is to run f3read on another computer to test your drive. It would be helpful if the other computer ran a different operating system.

Operating system bug. I recall macOS users reporting a bug related to a file system format in the past. It was a different problem and, as far as I know, Apple fixed that operating system bug. If you can format your drive with a different file system format, you can test whether the bug is isolated to the file system. Of course, there's no guarantee that the bug is there; it could be in buffer management for I/O or another related subsystem. However, the more you can scope the problem, the more help we can enlist.

[sashkab]

Thanks. I did check logs, but did not see anything suspicious in the log, but tried different file systems and in every case i would get an error (exfat, apfs, hfs).

[AltraMayor]

We need a Mac developer to help investigate this issue. I've added the tag "Help wanted" to this issue.