Mac OSX wont reognise my internal hard disk drive

I have a problem where for some reason when I start up my Macbook Pro (intel core duo) it does not detect the internal hard disk drive at all. I have run a hardware test and it shows no problems whatsoever. I have tried resetting the PRAM etc and to no avail. Yesterday the system hung and I tried to force quit and it wouldn't do anything so eventually I held down the power key and when it tried to reboot this is the problem I was faced with (it would boot up with the "no entry" sign). I accepted complete defeat and went to completely re-install OSX however it doesn't even show the internal hard drive when I wait for it to give me install destinations. I had tried seeing the hard drive through disk utility however it only shows the install DVD and that's it in the sidebar. I resigned myself further to thinking either the logic board or the HDD had packed in all and I took it round to my brother in law to see if there is anything he could do without opening the machine (he is Oxford educated and writes programmes etc so is very knowledgable), now this is the part that has miffed us both, he started it up using a Linux disc and once running, Linux see's the hard drive with no problems. He has been able to access the HDD with absolutely no problems under Linux both reading and writing to it. I even took my Mac Mini round and he booted them both up in Linux and completely copied Mac OSX from the mini to the macbook pro but still when I try booting up its as if the HDD isn't even there. Why can Linux see the drive and not Mac OSX? Please don't be affraid to get very technical in your answers as they may mean nothing to me but will probably all make sense to my brother in Law. Any sugestions at all would be greatly accepted.

Dear mcdkev,
You guys may have made a big error cloning the Mini HD into the MBP. They both have very different drivers and hardware settings and their OS X versions are customized to fit the hardware. That is why each mac comes with it's own version of OS X and their backup disks. That's a reason why it did not work.
Ok, so now that you do not have any of the original info on the MBP try the following:
Use linux to scan the disk surface & repair any problems.
Reformat the drive as DOS or FAT 32. (I wouldn't go into any linux specific format unless you can "Apple" format it, which I don't think linux has that option.)
Now, the MBP should be able to see it's drive...
boot from the OS X DVD , from the Utilities menu choose Disk Utilities, partition the drive as GUI file system (in case the linux format made the drive a "system boot record", you do not want that... )
Then format the drive as "OS X Extended Journaled"
Now go back to install and install your original basic set of OS X (the factory default).
*If nothing works, please do take your MBP to the Apple store or to a certified tech before you do more damage to the drive and it becomes unusable ...*

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stefanobernardini,
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1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
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Sorry if this is already answered somewhere, but I have searched so many forums that my head is swimming!
My boyfriend connected a new USB drive to his MacBook, formatted the new disk, copied some backup data onto it. At some point, the MacBook hung, so he held down the power key until the MB turned off.
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Let me guess: you're also experiencing a low clicking noise from the right side of your mac immediately after you turn it on, right? Same thing happened to me and others, in fact there are several threads on this subject already:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=960977&start=0&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5325539&#5325539
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Many thanks, Stefan

Hi turbostar, thank you for your response.
It is a brand-new hard disk freshly formated as mac journaled. My plan was to use it as a data container with de-activated user rights and Paragon HFS+ installed on the Windows 7 side (just because I will mainly use this drive under MacOSX and just sometimes under Windows 7; and hd space on the Windows 7 partition is very scarce).
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Unable to erase internal hard disk

Dear Mac Book Users
To begin with I got a problem of spinning wheel and grey screen, upon extensive research online i could,nt find any solution and everytime i tried to repair it with disk utility's first aid otion i got the following error:
Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
There were a lot of errors wth permissions (upon clicking verify permissions) but the repair permissions button was greyed out.
Now all that is history and finally the only solution to get rid of the above problem was to back up my data to an external hd (WD-My passport) using the Restore option in disk utility. That worked well and all my data, the whole volume named MACINTOSH HD was copied to external hd and alsi now I am able to boot with this external hd.
Now the problem is that when i go to disk utility and try to erase the original internal hard disk details of which are as follows:
Disk Description :
ST9160314ASG Media
Total Capacity :
160.04 GB (1,60,04,18,85,696 Bytes)
Connection Bus :
SATA
Write Status :
Read/Write
Connection Type :
Internal
S.M.A.R.T. Status :
Not Supported
Partition Map Scheme :
GUID Partition Table
I get the error:
Volume Erase failed with the error:
File system formatter failed.
I want to know that has my hard disk crashed and if yes how to confirm it?
Also if it has crashed, now can i get a new hard disk with a greater capacity (let me know the maximum capacity) than my original 160gb. Are there any things i should keep in mind while buying a new one?

Please check the results:
Last login: Thu Aug 30 11:34:15 on console
Manan-Dewans-MacBook-Pro:~ manandewan$
Manan-Dewans-MacBook-Pro:~ manandewan$ bash
bash-3.2$ diskutil erasedisk HFS+newdisk Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.diskutil erasedisk HFS+newdisk /volumes/disk0
Unknown partition scheme: Utility
bash-3.2$ diskutil erasedisk HFS+newdisk /volumes/disk0
Usage: diskutil eraseDisk format name [[APM]Format|[MBR]Format|[GPT]Format]
MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode
Completely erase an existing whole disk. All volumes on this disk will be
destroyed. Ownership of the affected disk is required.
Format is the specific file system name you want to erase it as (HFS+, etc.).
Name is the (new) volume name (subject to file system naming restrictions),
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You cannot erase the boot disk.
Example: diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ UntitledUFS disk3
bash-3.2$ diskutil erasedisk HFS+ newdisk "/volumes/disk0"
Could not find disk for /volumes/disk0
bash-3.2$

Mac OSX wont reognise my internal hard disk drive

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