Mac won't format external hard drive

Hello Everyone,
I have had a heck of a time trying to get a wd external portable hard drive to format to my macbook. I would like to use it to run time machine on my mac. I have followed directions found online on multiple websites (and on these forums) to a T. Every time I go to "erase" and reformat, it deletes any volumes there, to which I think, ok I'll make a new partition and then try the whole process again. The partition won't even create.
When I go to erase the drive and reformat to mac os extended journaled, I get:
Disk Erase failed with the error:
POSIX reports: The operation couldn’t be completed. Input/output error
When trying to partition, I get the following message:
Partition failed with the error:
Wiping volume data to prevent future accidental probing failed.
I don't know if I need to download some sort of software from western digital or what.....?
Any help is appreciated!!!
Thanks!!!

Hi There,
Thank you for responding.
It is just a plain old western digital my passport essential 1 tb drive.
When trying to partition (which technically if the drive is erased and reformatted, shouldn't need done from what I've read), I've selected 1 partition. GUID is selected. It is after the computer goes to create the partition that at the very end, I get:
Partition failed with the error:
Wiping volume data to prevent future accidental probing failed.
Trying to reformat the drive by erasing also does not work.
Thank you for any suggestions!

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