Disk Utility Refuses to Format drive to GUID

I purchased a 1 TB wd 10eavs external hard drive, and have tried numerous things to get it to format. Every single time, Disk Utility comes up with an error saying "File system formatter failed" after about 2 minutes. I can format it to NTFS but that is useless as I want to be able to boot with it. Just so everyone knows, I tried many times at each of the following: Erase to Mac OS Extended, Partition to GUID and Mac OS Extended, Partition to Apple Partition Map and Mac OS Extended, and even partition to GUID and NTFS, which also failed, not surprisingly. The only time it successfully worked was when I used Erase to NTFS. Please help as the deadline is approaching to return and I need to know if I need to return it or not. Thank you all!

I am in the same boat. Picked up a 1TB Samsung 2.5" SATA and have been unable to reformat or partition just as bduff9.
Can you format to NTFS and then reformat to MacOS Extended?
I tried using Disc Utility to repair the disc and continue to get the same "File System formatter failed."
Is this just a bad hard drive?
Help me if you can
I'm feeling down
This new 1TB Hard drive won't spin round
Help me back up the files I have found
Won't you please
PLEASE
Help me...

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Disk Utility Can't Format Drive

My Dad just bought a brand new 1TB Fantom external hard drive for his iMac. But Disk Utility cant erase or format the drive as a Mac format volume. I keep getting this error:
Volume Erase failed
Volume Erase failed with the error:
The underlying task reported failure on exit.
SOMEHOW I did get it to change from a MS-DOS format to a Mac OS X (Journaled) but I still keep getting errors when I try to Verify or Erase the drive!
Got this error when I tried to Verify the drive: Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.
And when I go to format the drive I get this wheel and the spinning blue candy-cane bar, and the operation never completes:
"......partition size not a multiple of 4K"
When I goto the company web site I get this error message:
http://www.fantomdrives.com/
ACCESS FORBIDDEN
Access denied. Please click on the back button to return to the former page.
Anyone know why Disk Utility cannot erase or even verify this drive???
Never had so much trouble formating a drive in my life...
Jeff

The underlying task reported failure on exit.
The above is not a good sign. And yes it's very odd that TM Utility was able to get the job done but not Disk Utility (since they address formatting drives in a very similar way). When you look at the drive in Disk Utility, is it reporting good S.M.A.R.T. status? Before seeing your post about using TM to fix the issue, I was going to suggest trying to erase and/or format the drive using a 2nd computer to see the results. I would run tests with DU on the drive and any other drive utility programs you may have (Techtools Pro perhaps) to see what the results are.

Will Restore in Leopard Disk Utility reliably copy a drive with bootcamp?

I have a drive partitioned part OS X and part Bootcamp (with Windows XP installed). If I use Apple's Disk Utility to 'Restore' the drive (to copy the drive to a larger drive) will this work reliably for bootcamp as well as the OS X content? Presumably this just clones the drive?

Once you install MacFUSE you can not use the Startup Disk Utility anymore to boot into Windows, you need to hold the option key every time.
As you stated, NTFS is owned by Microsoft, its their proprietary format and has many different versions of it. I don't think any company has the full right to format NTFS which basically comes down that you can not complain to any of the companies or MS about data loss.
My idea with an image is that I can always read it, so in case the WinClone format or write fails I still have all my files (and not just parts of it). Since I am booted the most amount of time on Mac OS X anyway I don't care that a script creates an entire mirror image of my current Windows drive overnight.
I actually have several basic images that I can always restore in case I want to clean up my drive.

Using Disk Utility to erase Hard Drive

Hi All
I just bought a new external hard drive and am using Disk Utility to erase and format it. I did not know for sure if erasing the hard drive was the right thing to do. Anyway I set up the Volume as follows from the mac help instructions:
1.format OS extended journaled
2.Install OS9 disk driver.
3.("Zero all data" and "8 Way Random Write Format"). So it has been running for about 3 hours now and is only 1/8 of the way writing 0's to disk.
My question is should I continue on and just let it finish up? At the rate it is going It might be done by sometime tomorrow.
Or can I stop the erasing process without hurting the hard drive.
Then start disk utility erasing the hard drive without this Zero all data.
Thanks much

Just to confirm your impression, S. Frigolett: yes, everything should be fine now.
Zeroing a drive is advisable if you have reason to believe there may be bad data storage blocks on it; zeroing identifies those blocks and prevents them from being used (because using them would result in lost or corrupt data). A simple erase doesn't do that, but on a new drive straight from the factory there is no reason to think it's necessary.
The 8 way random write option is for people who have extremely sensitive data to erase from a drive that may pass into other hands, and who want to be sure that no one short of the NSA will have any chance of recovering any of that data. A new, empty drive has nothing on it that even the NSA could recover, so there's no reason to erase it that thoroughly.

"Repair Disk" option in Disk Utility need to repair drive.

I have a Seagate GoFlex Desk 2TB external hard drive. I use it as a backup drive for Time Machine. When I plug it into my iMac it dosen't open, I opened Disk Utility and clicked "Verify Drive" and then I got this...
I have backups on this drive. If I click "Repair Drive" will I lose the data on the drive?

After I Repair the drive this is what I get...
What should I do now? Is my drive bad?

Im attempting to start up from OSX 10.4.9 back up disc on my Macbook 13inch but it starts up and am able get to utilities then disk utility but my internal drive doesnt show in options on left can anyone help ?

Hi all my trusty macbook 13 inch 5 years old has let me down get a box with question mark in it when i switch on , so apple support tells me to try ans start by back up OSX 10.4.9 disk the built in drive doesnt work so i am using an external toshiba drive .
I switch on holding down c key an apple logo comes on and it starts up im able to acess utilities then disk utility but in the options on the left there is only the Backup disc and the external drive showing my internal mackintosh drive wont show so i cant move further any help

If your hard drive isn’t recognized in Disk Utility then your hard drive is probably dead.

Disk Utility can't format !

Hello,
Since Leopard, Disk Utility can't format external HD (or USB key or anything else). There is an error and the HD can't mount anymore.
If I use a Mac under Tiger, there is no problem to format ans the HD is usable under 10.5.x.
This problem isn't fix in 10.5.0, 10.5.1 or 10.5.2.
I tested with my iMac and my MacBookPro. Same problem.
Anyone got an idea ?
Thanks

To dechamp :
HD is connected with a FW hub. maybe it is the problem :/
I will retry when it's connected directly.
I have 4 FW external HD and only 1 FW 400 on the iMac ... so the HUB is really important
But to format, I can plug directly, or via USB
Time Machine is ON, but not working on this HD
I'll continue my tests
Thanks !

Can Lion disk utility dynamically partition a drive?

Can Lion disk utility dynamically partition a drive? I see many posts that Leopard Disk utility can but nothing about Lion.

Yes. I'll post a link to instructions. Be sure to create a full reliable backup before you begin (don't just do the backup, test the backup to be sure it's good), and the only application that should be running until the process is complete is Disk Utility.
http://osxdaily.com/2009/11/20/resize-partitions-in-mac-os-x-with-disk-utility/
Some people have problems resizing partitions because of the hidden Recovery HD partition. It sometimes gets in the way because Disk Utility can move it "up" but cannot move it "down".

How does disk utility decide which optical drive to use for burn?

This is a somewhat daft question and purely out of interest.
How does disk utility decide which optical drive bay to open for burning?
I have two drives in a MacPro and both have the same capabilities (DVD-RW). Why does it sometimes open the lower one, and sometimes the top one?

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:
The estimate is based on how long it already took to do how many blocks, and how many blocks are left to do. If you told it to overwrite 35 times, it will be a long, long time before it completes.
The estimate is made grossly large by the presence of Bad Blocks that need to be Read during the test (not the case with Erase and Write Zeroes).
Each Block is written with some redundancy bits, so that small errors can be corrected on reading. A Bad Block causes the drive to re-read. and re-read, and re-read, in hopes of getting correctable data the next time. This should NOT be an issue in writing. But if the drive stops responding (which can and does happen with a bad drive) the Erase function will just sit there, thinking it is making progress, and stretching out the time.
Thanks, Grant.
If I read your reply correctly, Erase and Zero Out free space shouldn't elongate the process, because there's no read occurring.
The drive will not be Mounted while Disk Utility works on it, so it will not be on the Desktop. But ask Apple System Profiler \[ About this Mac > More Info > Serial ATA ] if the drive is still THERE . If it cannot be seen, you have your answer -- the drive dropped out of sight while being tested -- Bad Drive.
Well, now I am confused. It's a FW800 drive. It's on the Desktop. And it appears under FireWire in System Profiler. AND Disk Utility shows a mount point. But the Unmount and Eject buttons are grayed out.
Will the drive be mounted if it fails to respond to Disk Utility? That doesn't seem to make sense.
How do I determine its status? It appears to be stuck at "1 day, 5 hours" but it'll take an hour for that to change. I think it's been that long since I first noticed the time.
Harv

Disk Utility fails when formatting a drive

Hi, I have been having problem with Disk Utility when formatting a drive. Every time I format a drive, regarding of what volume format I choose, it will start the format and then fail shortly after.
The drives are then no longer mountable and Disk Utility will not be able to see the drive any more.
Can some one tell me why this is failing? I have only ever experienced this problem on my Mac Pro.
Thanks

Thanks, The Hatter. Sorry I didn't include the internal drive information because so far, I have been using disk utility to format external drives and every time I tried to use it to format, it will fail (have not tried to format an internal drive as I only have one internal).
This is the detail of my internal drive.
Capacity: 298.09 GB
Model: WDC WD3200AAJS-41VWA0
Revision: 58.01D01
Serial Number: WD-WCARW3484394
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Bay Name: "Bay 1"
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
I have tried connecting external drives via, USB and Firewire. Have tried formatting drive to MS-DOS (Fat 32) or MacOS Extended and nothing works.
Please let me know if you need any more info.

Disk Utility Can't format my USB drive

I've got a Transcend 8GB usb drive and i want to erase everything on it but i can't. I know that the best way to do this is the Disk Utility (Because Finder can't erase them too. When I drag and drop to the bin, it says "43 files cannot be deleted")
When i attempt to format, this message appears from disk utility:
What does this mean?
and also, another message appears at the same time.
What does this mean?
I just wanted to format my disk. But i can still see the content in the disk. But can't copy them to desktop.
Please help me!

Happens with corrupt drives may be due to partition table failure. may be a similar post can help you POSIX reports: The operation couldn’t be completed. Cannot allocate memory

DIsk Utility Hangs When Formatting USB flash drive

I have a 4gb USB drive (Jetflash by Transcend) that's been usable formatted as FAT. I'd read that i/o would be a lot faster if I formatted as Mac OS Extended instead. In fact, I've done this with previous USB drives with success. When I try to reformat the drive in Disk Utility, it stalls at "Preparing to Erase." I've also tried going through Partition instead, but again, just stalls at the beginning. This is not a freeze or hang or spinning ball moment, but it will just sit there not doing anything. I can quit out of DU at any time. I've left DU alone, thinking this just may take a while, but it has stayed this way up to 3 hours. Suspiciously, there are no blinking lights on the usb drive during this process. I realize every USB flash drive must have different firmware that reacts differently to Macs and I may just be unable to Mac-format this. I've also taken the drive to other Macs all running 10.4.7 with the same results. Any ideas or workarounds will be appreciated. Thanks.

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My disk utility refuses to erase my hard drive

I've been trying for a few years to find some way to reset my mac to factory settings. Every last thing I've tried has failed. I was hoping the disk utility thing to erase it would work but the erase button never lets me to click on it

If you previously encrypted your hard drive (FileVault2) then your drive was enrolled in apple's CoreStorage format. If so, diskutility won't let you perform certain operations, and you'd first need to use advanced diskutil options from the command line ( $ diskutil cs delete ... ) to trash the CoreStorage volume.

Disk Utility can't format my external HD - File System Formatter fails

Hi. I have a Freecom 1.5TB external hardrive that is connected by firewire to my Intel iMac. The drive has worked fine for a year and then suddenly the "error 36 code" appeared and nothing else could be saved to the drive.
Disk Utility told me that it could not repair the disk and that I should format it. At this stage the problems start!
DU fails to format the drive with the error "File System Formatter Failed."
I have read various conversations on this error on these forums and followed the instructions but nothing has worked. I have already
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2) Used MS DOS to do it but that also fails.
I have noticed that the SMART status is "not recognised".
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Any help appreciated.
Rob

I went crazy last night with the same issue trying to format my Toshiba external drive. I could format as MSDOS but not Mac journaled. I tried the guid partition scheme etc... no luck. Then I read somewhere that Leopard has an issue with the partitioning schemes. I hooked it up to my macbook on Tiger and whalla, formatted no problem. Then I was able to hook it up to Time Machine and let it reformat it on my Snow Leopard version of OSX on the iMac. I'm on OSX 10.6.8.

Disk Utility won't format/partition external HD

I was just using this HD earlier tonight because it had a VMware image on it that I use. (Drive previously formatted under Tiger's disk utility) Well, I decided I wanted to repartition it so I could have a LeopardInstallDVD partition and a partition for my VMware images. When I tried to repartition the HD in Disk Utility, it just kinda froze and I just got the spinning beach ball, so I had to Force Quit. I tried it again; same result. I tried to restart the computer, but it froze, so I had to hard boot it. Upon restart, I was greeted with a message that one of the disks was not recognized by the OS. Guess which one? Yep, not only did it no longer show up in Disk Utility, but now the other external drive I was using for my Time Machine backups was no longer showing either. I turned off that hard drive and turned it back on and luckily it mounted and all my backups seem to be intact. However, I still couldn't get the other one to show up. So, I unhooked it and attached it to a windows machine and it showed up as "uninitialized disk". I was able to initialize it and reformat it as NTFS. I then unhooked it, plugged it back into my Mac and it recognized it as a NTFS drive with one volume called "new volume." I again tried to partition it and all I get is the spinning beach ball and I have to force quit. I can't even do an "erase" on the drive; I just get the spinning beach ball. What is going on here? Did Leopard corrupt my drive somehow?
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Disk Utility Refuses to Format drive to GUID

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