I'm getting the message "The iPad cannot be synced. The disk could not be read or written to." What can I do?

A number of users have reported early issues syncing their iPad. Many of these users are receiving a message which states:

The iPad cannot be synced. The disk could not be read or written to.

There are a variety of reasons that users seem to be experiencing this issue. Most users who have verified the following have reported success syncing thereafter:

1) insure your OS is up to date, the iPad requires OS X version 10.5.8 or higher
2) insure your version of iTunes is up to date, 9.1 or higher is required
3) the sync problem may be limited to and/or caused by iPhoto, insure that your version of iPhoto is 8.1.2 or higher