Hard drive problems on 2 mac minis

Hello,
I have 2 Mac minis that appear to have bad drives in them.
60GB intel 1.66, and 100GB intel 1.66.
Starting from install disc, Disk utility cant repair, in one case it cannot see the drive.
Tried Disk Warrior with no success either.
Also tried zeroing out the drives using Disk utility.
No luck there. It seems to freeze.
Does anybody have any suggestions ?
One is under warranty, the others warranty ended about 2 months ago.
Also, if I take the warranty one to a genius desk, can they change the drive right there on the mini ?
Or will he just say the drive is bad and the mini needs to be sent back ?
Thanks in advance for any help provided!
Message was edited by: got2go

If Disk Utility from a compatible boot drive will not complete formatting of the drive, and you have the drive correctly partitioned, then it does indeed indicate a failed drive.
Apple won't send you replacement drives for you to fit - and of course you don't have to take your mini to an Apple store, because any Apple approved service provider can do the work - meaning obtain and fit drives. Alternatively, if you want to fit the drive(s) yourself, there is nothing to stop you sourcing compatible components and doing the work. Start at http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/mac-mini/ and pick the right type of system (PPC or Intel) and look at the drive options there. That'll give you a good idea of what drives you can buy, including devices which are not only rather higher capacity than original, but also faster. That site also contains links to video to help you do the work.
Of course doing it yourself will void any remaining warranty, and if that is an issue, it is essential to have Apple (or an approved service provider) do the work.
If you do it, you WILL need a compatible install disk in order to reinstall a compatible copy of MacOS, or software such as SuperDuper! to clone your bootable external to the new internal - assuming you want to revert to booting from that of course.

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