Suppressing the annoying pop-up

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As of version 1.3.0, you should not see the message "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" unless one or more devices in your pool is a partition with a type code specifying a file system other than ZFS. The correct partition type GUID for OpenZFS on OS X is "6A898CC3-1DD2-11B2-99A6-080020736631," which may display as any of the following, depending on what tool you're using:

  • bf01
  • ZFS
  • EFI_USR
  • Solaris /usr & Mac ZFS
  • 6A898CC3-1DD2-11B2-99A6-080020736631

The easiest way to correct the partition type is to use gdisk which is distributed via Homebrew as the formula "gptfdisk" or via SourceForge as a pkg installer. The gdisk function for changing partition type is "t," as explained here.

Warning: as of El Capitan (10.11) and later, Apple has blocked normal methods of modifying a partition type (such as those mentioned in the preceding paragraph), through a mechanism called "System Integrity Protection" (SIP). You will have to use one of the following methods (starting with the easiest):

  • Boot an earlier version of Mac OS X (e.g. 10.6), and use it to run gdisk as outlined above on the disk containing your target partition.
  • boot using a Linux emergency disk and use it to run gdisk on the disk containing your target partition.
  • figure out how to disable Apple's "System Integrity Protection", then run gdisk.

For further information, see the gdisk home page link above.

Please note that you don't need to worry about fs type in the case you use coreStorage based encryption as explained in the encryption wiki page.