Disk Utility won't initialize second Maxtor drive

My first hardware upgrade has not gone too well. I just got a Maxtor 6L250S0 drive to fill empty second bay of my dual 1.8 PowerMac G5. (Drive specs: 250 GB SATA Ultra 16, DiamondMax, 16 MB cache, 7200 RPM) Installation was a breeze, but I can't get my Mac to erase, format, partition or otherwise initialize the drive for use. When I rebooted, I got the message about needing to initialize the new hardware. I clicked "Initialize", and Disk Utility came up. Disk Utility lists "Maxtor SABRE" as a drive on the left and lists the following details at the bottom:
Disk Description : Maxtor SABRE
Total Capacity : 0 Bytes
Connection Bus : Serial ATA
Write Status : Read/Write
Connection Type : Internal
S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
Connection ID : Device 0, "B (lower)"
The Capacity and SMART status lines are a bit troubling. Is that normal when a drive is first installed?
I go to the ERASE tab and can only select "Mac OS Standard" or "UNIX File System" for the volume format. I select the Mac OS Standard and press the Erase button, but I get a message "Disk erase failed with the following error: The chosen size is not valid for the chosen file system."
I go to the PARTITION tab and can't do anything there either. When it lets me edit the form and press the Partition button, it gives an error saying "Device not configured." Usually as soon as I do anything on this form (e.g., select the Format dropdown), all the choices are grayed out with the notice "the disk is too small to contain partitions".
Based upon research here and elsewhere, I know this is a compatible drive. Am I missing a step? Could the drive be bad?
PowerMac G5 dual 1.8   Mac OS X (10.4.5)   2.5 GB RAM

My first hardware upgrade has not gone too well. I
just got a Maxtor 6L250S0 drive to fill empty second
bay of my dual 1.8 PowerMac G5. (Drive specs: 250
GB SATA Ultra 16, DiamondMax, 16 MB cache, 7200 RPM)
Installation was a breeze, but I can't get my Mac
to erase, format, partition or otherwise initialize
the drive for use. When I rebooted, I got the
message about needing to initialize the new
hardware. I clicked "Initialize", and Disk Utility
came up. Disk Utility lists "Maxtor SABRE"
Hi,
I have never seen a Maxtor come up as "Maxtor SABRE" in disk utility. Your post says the Maxtor 250GB hard drive is mounted internally. If so, I would guess that the drive is damaged. I would take it back for a working drive.
Or you could call Maxtor at (800) 262-9867. I have had two Maxtor drives fail in the last 5 months and the techs at Maxtor sent me replacements and then I returned the damage drives in their shipping boxes.
The Maxtor tech guys are very helpful and give Mac users the benefit of the doubt when it comes to warranty returns. At least that was my experience.
The drive should display Maxtor 6L250S0 in the disk utility window and Smart Drive status should be active.
I hope this helps,
Michael

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