Can't format HDD MacBookPro5, 1

So... I went to install Lion and it failed.
When I restart the computer the Apple logo on the splash screen cycles from Apple, to Folder with a question mark, to a circle with line through it, repeat.
Restart holding Option let's me choose the Snow Leopard install and boots into the OS as expected.
Disc Utility in SL won't repair disc due to a "missing thread" error. Advises to reboot with the install disc and use Disc Utility to repair.
Restart holding C with the Snow Leopard disc "Mac OS X can't be installed on this computer" and won't let me access disc utility to reformat.
Restart holding Command+S doesn't give the option to type /sbin/fsck -fy
Not sure where else to go from here other than physically removing the drive, plug in a USB interface, and forcing a format connected to my other computer. Kind of scary, allthough I have my Time Machine up-to-date.
Ideally I'd like to format the drive and install fresh Lion from the USB key I created via LifeHacker http://lifehacker.com/5823096/how-to-burn-your-own-lion-install-dvd-or-flash-dri ve
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

Try partitioning the drive GUID before formatting it. This article explains how to format a drive for Time Machine. Once you have gotten rid of the Master Boot Record you should be able to reformat the drive the way you want.
One poster reported that zeroing out a Maxtor did not get rid of the Master Boot Record but I don't know if that would necessarily be true for a WD drive.

Similar Messages

Can't format HDD with Leopard Disk Utility

I have two identical drives P/N: WD 7500AAK (Western Digital 750GB MyBook (USB)). I formatted one drive using 'Disk Utility' under Tiger with a Volume Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with no problem. I am now trying to format the other drive under Lepoard and the formatting fails 100% of the time. The drive will format to Fat16, but not to the desired Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Unfortunately I no longer have a computer with the Tiger OS. Any idea what is going wrong? The drive is useless if I can't format it.

Try partitioning the drive GUID before formatting it. This article explains how to format a drive for Time Machine. Once you have gotten rid of the Master Boot Record you should be able to reformat the drive the way you want.
One poster reported that zeroing out a Maxtor did not get rid of the Master Boot Record but I don't know if that would necessarily be true for a WD drive.

Mac can't format HDD

I have an Iomega HDD 80GB USB 2.0 External Desktop Hard Drive. I have used this hard drive before on both my Mac and a PC, and it worked fine. The other day, I plugged in my external hard drive so that I could use it to back up my system on Time Machine. The external drive had some files on it already, so when I plugged it into my Mac, Time Machine said that I would have to format it. So I went ahead and allowed it to start formatting the disk, but then system preferences froze while it was formatting. I couldn't eject the drive so I had to force quit and restarted my computer. Then when I plugged in the external drive again, the computer said that it could not read the disk. So I opened Disk Utility and tried to reformat the hard drive. However, Disk Utility froze about a minute after it started reformatting the external hard drive, while the progress bar was on "Creating partition map". Once again, I had to force quit the application and I restarted my computer. Upon plugging my external hard drive in AGAIN, the computer said it could not read the disk so I tried reformatting the hard drive (through Disk Utility) yet another time, and it froze again. I tried this again and it froze again. I tried plugging the hard drive into a PC, and it did not show up in "My Computer." It did, however, show up in Device Manager, and Device Manager said that the device was working fine (I also checked all of the USB Root Hubs etc, as per the instructions in the Iomega support Answer ID 1235). So basically, the computer said the device had no problems, yet there was no way I could actually see any of the files on the disk (or format it) because it wasn't showing up in My Computer. And I can't seem to format it on my Mac because it freezes up every time.
Is there any way I can format this hard drive?? Is it corrupted and unusable? What are some other things I can try?
Edit: I also tried to reformat the drive by partitioning it in Disk Utility (following the directions on the Iomega support article) and Disk Utility froze when the progress bar said "Creating partition map."

I have the same drive and the same problem. The drive itself is fine. I took it to work and formatted under windows - no problem. Still can't get it to work with OS X.

Can I format HDD and reinstall Windows 7 on Qosmio F60 without CD

I think my hard drive is failing on my Quosmio F60 so I want to reformat the hard drive to see if that will fix it. But I don't have the original packaging and information with me at the moment so I'm not sure if it came with a windows 7 CD or not. Either way, I don't have the CD.
I found on the net that most manufacturer's who deliver without a CD include a "recovery partition" or "factory image partition" that you can access during boot up. Does anyone know if the Quosmio F60 came with a CD or if it has this recovery partition or factory image partition? Or do you know if there's a way I can check if my computer has it?
If you have any other information on formatting the hard drive and reinstalling windows 7 without the CD please let me know.
Thanks.

The notebook did not come with an Windows disk because there is an tool called Toshiba Recovery Disk Creator which create the recovery disk.
The recovery partition was available and it allows you to recover the notebook without the usage of recovery disk but this does not work if the HDD has failed.
Here a nice HowTo about HDD recovery
http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/HTD1303440001R01.htm
So if you dont have a recovery disk and cannot recovery the notebook using HDD recovery then you have two options:
- You will order a new recovery disk
- You would install Windows OS using an Microsoft disk

Can't format HDD using Desktop PC Utility USB Drive

I'm trying to install LabVIEW RT 9.0 on a Kontron ITC-322 cPCI using the Desktop PC Utility USB Drive. The Kontron ITC-322 has a Core 2 Duo and an Intel 3100 chipset which has the IICH and an IMCH and an Intel 82571EB ethernet contorller. The HDD is a flash disk module that connects over USB and appears as a hard drive, not a flash disk.
I'm able to boot from the Desktop PC Utility configured USB Drive but when I go to format drive I get an error saying no SATA/ATA drive found. Since I had a PXI-8108 controller handy, I installed it's SATA drive on the Kontron ITC-322 and booted again from the USB boot disk and tried formating it's drive. ( I didn't care about wiping it). Again I got the same error. I went into the Kontron's BIOS and set the ATA/IDE compatibility mode from Enhanced to Compatible and go a new error. Since LabVIEW RT 9.0 was already on the controller the Kontron attempted to boot it. I got kernel error 146080 and ETS Monitor halted with error 2002.
Finally I just tried booting my SATA drive but it seems that didn't work. I had Linux on the drive and it just booted that. I never could get the GRUB to find the LabVIEW RT partition on the drive so it was never capable of booting it.In fact the only way to boot it was to use the PXI-8108's custom BIOS.
Also, the Kontron's BIOS is an American Megatrends ver.08.00.4

Hi,
Have you looked at this RT PC requirements document? Of your components that I checked, they seemed to be compatible. I'm not sure about your hard drive though.
Did you try this?
"If AHCI, IDE or compatibility/legacy mode isn't available or doesn't work, try RAID to get HDD recognized"
I would also recommend making a "Format Hard Drive Disk" from MAX first. Format the HDD and then try using the boot drive.
Any change when you do this instead?
Tanya V
National Instruments
LabVIEW Platform Product Support Engineer

Satellite L305D S5895: Win 7 can't find HDD or can't format HDD on clean install

I have a customer's Satellite L305D S5895 laptop. This was shipped to me by the customer who tried to install Windows XP Pro, Vista and none would install.
He said he tried all installation CDs he had and finally gave up on it and shipped it to me.
When I got it the partition were deleted so I tried to install Win 7 and when I do doing a custom install I get an error saying the hard drive can't be formatted on disk 0 or it will give an error that no hard drives were found.
I reset the bios to default and no matter what I do it won't format or find the harddrive. I was going to upgrade the bios but the only way I found to upgrade the bios is after windows is installed.
Anyone got any ideas on this laptop so I can get a system installed. I checked the bios and there is no settings for a sata drive, raid drive or IDE drive so it looks like this version can't be changed.
Thanks for anyone who can help.
Rick

The upgrade instructions do not help, I am not doing a upgrade but a clean install and the Toshiba Software Installer for Windows 7 doesn't look like it will work because it is an .exe file and with no operating system I don't see how it can run but I can't find instructions on how to use the installer
I've tried running tests on the drive to see if it is bad or going bad but after trying about 4 different programs and all having the same results I think the drive may be bad.
All diag programs I've tried boot the computer and show "STARTING PC DOS" and they all stop at that point which I guess is an indication the drive is bad because they can't seem to find it, not sure just guessing as to why all stop at this point.
I've tried SeaTools and Hitachi Drive Fitness Test and a few others only to have them all stop at "STARTING PC DOS"

How can I format my new blank HDD that I just install ?

How can I format my new blank HDD that I just install ?

You will need to boot from another source: a bootable clone, your old internal in an external enclosure, or your install disk.

Can't format my new HDD (WD3200bevt)

i bought a new internal hard drive yesterday and i found that i can't format it (i am sure that the new HDD set in my MBP corrected). i used disk utility to erase it, then says "file system formatter failed." i googled everything but, nothing. i tried to follow the instruction i googled that change the partition type to Guid, however it says again and again too("file system formatter failed."). it almost drive me crazy. i don't know how to solve it.
P.S. i find i can format it into FAT.
my HDD is WD3200BEVT. also i have a wd5000bevt, it worked beautiful.

Hi there,
I don't have direct experience of your problem but have suggestions.
1. Try some of the things suggested on this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1288978&start=0&tstart=0
2. In disk utility click on the logical name of the HD in the side bar (in my case that's a long name with code for the drive and size), select this and not the partition name! then click on the partition tab. From the drop down select one partition. From options select GUID. Then the filesystem as HFS+ Journaled etc. Then click erase. Does that make any difference?
3. Or download Ubuntu and try and re-format the disk using the installer.

How to format HDD on my Satellite C855-1GQ?

I have a Toshiba Satellite C855-1GQ.
How do I format my HDD thanks for your help.

Hello
I don't know what do you want to do exactly. HDD can be formatted before you install original recovery image that you got with your machine but also if you want to install own OS version.
If you have created recovery disc you can format HDD using one of the offered options (erase the hard disk) - http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/HTD1303440001R02.htm
In case that you want to use Microsoft installation disc at the beginning of setup procedure current HDD will be shown. You have option to delete existing partitions, create new partitions and install Windows OS.
Please let us know what do you want to do exactly.

Access rights issue on windows formatted HDD

i have a windows formatted HDD connectd via USB, and there seems to be an access privelidges problem. i can't create folders on it, and can't move/delete "some" files.
is there any way (without connecting it back to a windows PC) to reset the access rights on the drive/folders/files? there is too much data on it for me to re-format it just now (don't have the space to move all the stuff off it).

Hi Chenks,
this isn't most likely a 'rights' or 'permission' problem rather than that the external HD uses the NTFS file system, which OSX can only read but not write.
Do a right-click on the drive - choose 'Information' to verify if that is the point.
Without a reformatting to a file system that OSX can rad and write, either HFS+ (when using exclusively with Mac) or FAT32 (when using it with Mac and PC), your only choice is to use MacFuse http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/
Regards
Stefan

Can't format external hard drive enclosure

I connected a 250gb external hard drive enclosure to my mac osx 10.3.9. I was told that it was formatted to windows and that i would have reformat it to mac.
I was given instructions to go to Disk Utility, select the volume and click on the partition tab, but a partition tab didn't appear when i pressed it.
I checked out the info for the volume and this is what it gave me:
Name : New Volume
Type : Volume
Disk Identifier : disk1s1
Mount Point : /Volumes/New Volume
File System : Winows NT Filesystem
Connection Bus : USB
IO Content : Windows_NTFS
Writable : No
Capacity : 232.9 GB (250,056,705,024 Bytes)
Free Space : 232.8 GB (249,976,606,720 Bytes)
Used : 76.4 MB (80,097,792 Bytes)
Number of Files : 48
Number of Folders : 0
Permissions Enabled : Yes
Can Turn Permissions Off : No
Can Repair Permissions : No
Can Be Verified : No
Can Be Repaired : No
Can Be Formatted : No
Bootable : No
Supports Journaling : No
Journaled : No
Disk Number : 1
Partition Number : 1
Final Cut Pro wouldn't let me use it as a sratch disk because it says it is on write-protected.
Does anyone know what i have to do to get the volume to work.
Thank you.

Jayden:
Here are some directions for formatting and partitioning a HDD:
Partitioning a Hard Disk Drive
Boot from the install CD holding down the "C" key.
Select language
Go to the Utilities menu and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in left side bar.
Select Partition tab in main panel.
Select # of partition in pulldown menu above Volume diagram.
Select 1 partition at a time and resize. (you can type size in the size field in main pane).
Type in name in Name field (usually Macintosh HD)
Select Volume Format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Click Partition button at bottom of panel.
Select Erase tab
Select each volume, in turn, under Manufacturer ID.
Select on Security Options button.
Select Zero all data. (This process will map out bad blocks on your HDD. However, it could take several hours. If you want a quicker method, don't go to Security Options and just click the Erase button.)
Quit Disk Utility.
Dr. Smoke's FAQ Backup and Recovery has some hints on partitioning.
Please don't hesitate to post back with further questions or comments.
Good luck.
cornelius
Message was edited by: cornelius

Non formated hdd

hello, I want to install solaris 10 on my ultra sun 5. I have 40go hdd, 400mhz, 512ram. the sun boot of course the cdrom, and I start l' installaton, but the installation stoped on the message -- hdd not formated.
how which utility I can to format my hdd.
SYL
Philo

When the installer stops, it should leave you with a windowing system (I'm presuming you're in a graphical environment).
Right-click on the wallpaper, choose 'terminal', and at the prompt in the terminal that will appear, type in 'format'. This should show you a menu of installed drives, which in your case will be one. Choose that one by menu item, and format should that whine that the disk is unlabelled, and ask if it as allowed to apply a default label.
Allow it to do so, quit out with ctrl-D, and run format again. This time it shouldn't whine about the drive. Then reboot off the cdrom.
If it can't find a default label, you may have a big problem.

Can't format partition (extended partition not showing up)

Hy,
I have a PC with 2 HDDs. I installed Windows 8.1 in DiSK 1. DISK 0 has a previous instalation of Windows 7 and Linux. After the install, I can use the computer normally, but DISK
0 has some issues:
- the disk appear with a MBR in Computer Management (correct)
- partition 3 has Windows 7 and is the only that seems "normal"
- all 8 partition appear as primary partitions in CM
- the extend partition (Partition 0) appears in Diskpart, but not in CM
- I can't format or do any action on any partition except 7 (all options besides "delete volume" are greyed out)
- in diskpart only the Windows 7 (partition 3) and disk 1 (Windows 8) appear as existing volumes.
How can I see what’s going on and fix it?
(I have searched for several terms, but I don’t seem to find anything related)

Hi,
Glad to see your problem resolved. Hope your experience was helpful with others had same problem.
Roger Lu
TechNet Community Support

Black Screen - Get Chime - Can Boot off HDD using another Mac - iMac 24in.

Hope someone can help me here, as I'm at my wits end.
I've got two issues, one with my MacBook Pro 17in, 4GB RAM, 160GB 7200rpm (2008) and another with my iMac 24in. 4GB RAM, 500GB 7200rpm (2009).
Firstly the MBP, left work on Thursday last week, got home, powered up the MBP and got a black screen!!! Tried resetting PRAM, SMC, booting in safe mode, removing and re-installing RAM, removing battery and mains power and leaving off overnight etc etc, yet nothing happens. Benn all over the forums and have not found any solution to get my beloved MBP working on it's own. I can boot off the HDD using another MBP 15in, re-install Snow Leopard and as far as I can tell the HDD is fine, as I have run disk utility and it tells me the HDD is OK.
I can't figure this out and it's doing my head in, as I use this laptop for business use and just can't afford to go out and buy another Mac. I should point out that this MBP never had any issues when running on Leopard, but ever since I upgraded to Snow Leopard, I have had nothing, but trouble. I did a clean install, in fact I have done it at least twice, even erasing the HDD securely, both at 7pass and 35pass, yet I have had permissions issues regularly and on the odd occasion, I have also had the problem of the HDD not being recognised.
The iMac is nearly the same, but the screen is working, although the iMac doesn't see the HDD no matter what way I do, again, reset PRAM, SMC, safe boot etc etc. In truth the iMac has been a lot more unreliable, but with the screen working, if I can get any solutions here, then I'll be working to work on that without the need or hassle of working via another.
I think that the MBP is only just still under warranty, but the iMac definitely is, but I need at least one working for business use, so really only want to let Apple have one at a time to look at/repair etc.
Ideally, as the HDD is working in the MBP, if I could get a solution to the black screen issue, then I could do without the iMac for whatever time it takes, so if there is anyone out there that can help, I'd be so grateful.
One last thing, when I bought the iMac 24in., I also bought an iMac 20in., but I never upgraded the 20in. to Snow Leopard and to this day, it has worked flawlessly, without a single issue ever.
Perhaps, I'm getting paranoid here, but there seems to me to be a link between the ongoing and regularly occurring problems with both Macs ant the upgrade to Snow Leopard. Why also, or is it just pure unadulterated coincidence that both the MBP and the iMac 24in have failed at pretty much the same time??!!!!
I'm going mental here, so I hope someone out there has a better fix, then me overdosing on Prozac!!
PS
I'm not a mac expert, not good with a soldering iron either, but I'm capable of following good instructions.

Using Snow Leopard forum is probably your best bet.
I don't care if someone has 20+ yrs, I still like having a good troubleshooting book/manual handy.
Mac: can't get by without bootable backups, even if you use TimeMachine, clone your system. Save you all this fuss and work.
Then invest in high quality disk repair and maintenance program.
Disk Warrior / TechTool Pro 5 / Drive Genius 3 - top 3 probably
There are always going to be normal items you just ignore with Repair Permissions. Useful to do once in a while but not magic. Same with SMC and the rest. Running disk repair is one of those things that it seems should be done before there is trouble, not after, and a weakness in HFS file system and disk directory.
Apple Support is a good place to start looking and then hardware category.
http://www.apple.com/support
http://www.apple.com/support/imac /macbookpro etc
Make sure all your software is current, don't install anything you are unsure of or can do without.
Run Apple Hardware Test off your OEM DVD specific to the Mac.
Now, have you Googled for this?
have you looked at reports about 500GB drives used in some Macs that had issues and were offered firmware update for the drive?
Considered just using another drive connected to iMac?
You can overheat a hard drive with needlessly running 7 and 35-write pass, besides which the best way to map out bad blocks is not Disk Utility.
http://www.bing.com/search?q=imacblackscreen
http://www.bing.com/search?q=AppleiMac+firmwareupdate
I'd direct your replies to iMac and MacBook Pro as well as to Using OS X Snow Leopard areas.

Black Screen on MBP, Can hear chime and can boot from HDD via another MBP!

Hope someone can help me here, as I'm at my wits end.
I've got two issues, one with my MacBook Pro 17in, 4GB RAM, 160GB 7200rpm (2008) and another with my iMac 24in. 4GB RAM, 500GB 7200rpm (2009).
Firstly the MBP, left work on Thursday last week, got home, powered up the MBP and got a black screen!!! Tried resetting PRAM, SMC, booting in safe mode, removing and re-installing RAM, removing battery and mains power and leaving off overnight etc etc, yet nothing happens. Benn all over the forums and have not found any solution to get my beloved MBP working on it's own. I can boot off the HDD using another MBP 15in, re-install Snow Leopard and as far as I can tell the HDD is fine, as I have run disk utility and it tells me the HDD is OK.
I can't figure this out and it's doing my head in, as I use this laptop for business use and just can't afford to go out and buy another Mac. I should point out that this MBP never had any issues when running on Leopard, but ever since I upgraded to Snow Leopard, I have had nothing, but trouble. I did a clean install, in fact I have done it at least twice, even erasing the HDD securely, both at 7pass and 35pass, yet I have had permissions issues regularly and on the odd occasion, I have also had the problem of the HDD not being recognised.
The iMac is nearly the same, but the screen is working, although the iMac doesn't see the HDD no matter what way I do, again, reset PRAM, SMC, safe boot etc etc. In truth the iMac has been a lot more unreliable, but with the screen working, if I can get any solutions here, then I'll be working to work on that without the need or hassle of working via another.
I think that the MBP is only just still under warranty, but the iMac definitely is, but I need at least one working for business use, so really only want to let Apple have one at a time to look at/repair etc.
Ideally, as the HDD is working in the MBP, if I could get a solution to the black screen issue, then I could do without the iMac for whatever time it takes, so if there is anyone out there that can help, I'd be so grateful.
One last thing, when I bought the iMac 24in., I also bought an iMac 20in., but I never upgraded the 20in. to Snow Leopard and to this day, it has worked flawlessly, without a single issue ever.
Perhaps, I'm getting paranoid here, but there seems to me to be a link between the ongoing and regularly occurring problems with both Macs ant the upgrade to Snow Leopard. Why also, or is it just pure unadulterated coincidence that both the MBP and the iMac 24in have failed at pretty much the same time??!!!!
I'm going mental here, so I hope someone out there has a better fix, then me overdosing on Prozac!!
PS
I'm not a mac expert, not good with a soldering iron either, but I'm capable of following good instructions.

Concerning your imac, have you tried installing the OS on an external drive and running the iMac from that? My friend in Texas had her iMac's hard drive vanish, so we installed the OS on an external FireWire drive I happened to have and then restored her data from a recent backup. So far I haven't had time to install the drive in her iMac, so it's been running off of the external for a long time now. Perhaps you could do something like that so you could at least have the use of the iMac while your MBP is in the shop. Once you get the MBP back, you can send in the iMac.
Be sure to report both of these to Apple and get case numbers so that you can document that the issues started while you were still under warranty--especially for the MBP that's about to go out of warranty.
Good luck!

Can't format HDD MacBookPro5, 1

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