Cannot reformat my disk to install SL on a new internal HDD

Bought a new 1 TB HDD as my pother disk drive was getting to full and decided not to work.
When i try to repartition the disk i get the error message
POSIC reports: the operation couldn't be completed
cannot allocate memory
When i try to erase the current partition i get
File system formatter failed
can anyone please help i know the hard drive isnt faulty as i installed windows xp from my pc on to it to make sure.
even when i try to install the hard drive does show up on the 'select the disk where you want o install Mac OS X' menu. where as when it had XP on it it showed up but obviously I needed to format it. Which i wont let me do
Cheer in advance guys

What model year is your Mac?
Did you try holding down the Option key at startup and selecting the DVD OS X disc as the boot device?
Then usin Disk Utility, in the Utilities menu item, to Partition, Format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and then Set the Partition Table as GUID, that is under the Options button on the Partition tab of Disk Utility?
If you did all of that and you get any errors during that process or after while trying to install OS X Snow Leopard then more than likely your problem is the cable going from the drive to the Logic board. And this was probably your original problem as well and your original drive is probably fine.

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Can I install a new internal HDD and reboot from time machine?

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The only time the system on the DVD matters, is when you install from the DVD.
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Does anyone know what might be going on here? I've tried repartitioning the drive (HFS+Journaled), erasing it, creating 2 smaller partitions, etc. but nothing seems to be working.

Do this:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disk. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. Then select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
Once the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with the OS X installation.
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Installing Snow Leopard on New Internal SSD (without External drive)

All,
I have been searching and searching for a sufficient answer for this question, but have come up short thusfar. So any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.
Basically I have an early 2009 MacBook Air (RevB) with a 128 GB HDD (not SSD). It has been painfully slow the past few months, and with the move to SSD for the new Air's - I've decided to swap my older HD for a new 64GB RunCore SSD (using the online guide from iFixit). However, as the MacBook Air inherently has no DVD drive - and the new HD will completely blank and not allow for the DVD Sharing to take place, I'm a bit stuck.
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Okay just copied this from a tutorial on how to do it.
*OSX 10.6 method for bootable USB key install*
Insert your retail DVD into drive.
Plug in usb key. I recommend getting at least a 16gig drive so you don’t run into capacity issues.
Open Disk Utitlity. Locatied in Applocations/Utitilties/DiskUtitily.app
Partition the USB drive and select GUID in the options so it will be bootable on a Mac.
Select restore and drag the image of the DVD on the left into the input path.
Drag the USB drive into the destination drive.
Click the restore button.
Sit back and relax cause you will be waiting for about 20-30 mins for the key to be formatted properly.
Hope this helps

Macbook cannot detect new internal HDD

hi there,
first of all, please excuse my terrible (german) school english. i hope you understand my problem.
last week i´ve bought a new internal western digital 250 gb hdd (the scorpio model). if i install the hdd in my macbook it could not be detected by the leopard installation dvd. the disk utility shows only my dvd-drive.
if i install the wd hdd in an external usb case i could format it. but even then, the macbook doesn´t detect it (after reinstall it internal).
if i connect the wd hdd via usb and copy the files from the old drive via carbon copy cloner onto it, i could boot from the usb port without any problems.
do you have any idea what´s the problem here?
thx

Hi ZeeO,
Dein Englisch ist sehr gut! I don't now exactly why your hard drive isn't detected. I recently installed a 500GB Western Digital HD in my MacBook and everything went fine. You can check out my blog and see what I did and perhaps you can figure out what you did differently or wrong.
http://obscuredclarity.blogspot.com/2008/10/500gb-macbook-harddrive-upgrade-for. html

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Hello,
Very short version of the problem:
*Tiger installation does not detect any harddrive to install to*
Full story:
Yesterday I bought my very first iMac. It's a 20" wirh 2Gb ram and 300Gb disk.
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Then I treid to install Windows using bootcamp.
Since then, a lot of problems.
The system will not start anymore.
So, since this is a fresh system, I have no problem starting all over again.
I can't directly start with Leopard since they are only upgrade disks, so have to install Tiger first.
When I have the install-1 Tiger disk in the CD and start the system, the upgrade
starts.
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*That box is empty on my screen !!!!*
*This is the problem: The apple cannot find my harddrive anymore.*
does anybody have a clue what to do now?
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Switching from Windows to Mac OS X,
Basic Tutorials on using a Mac,
MacFixIt Tutorials, and
MacTips Learning Centre.
Additionally, *Texas Mac Man* recommends:
Quick Assist.
Welcome to the Switch To A Mac Guides, and
A guide for switching to a Mac.

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http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11707/diskwarrior
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It pays to periodically check the *S.M.A.R.T. Status* of your drive, at the bottom of *Disk Utility.*
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Cannot reformat my disk to install SL on a new internal HDD

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