Problem - cannot format hard drive even after replacement

Dead hard drive. I was able to recover part of the data in firewire mode.
Rebooting from OSX disk hangs with a circle slash. Same if I try to reboot with Diskwarrior CD or TTPro. Removing the hard drive has the same result.
Booting from an external firewire utility drive is successful, however I'm unable to successfully reformat the hard drive. Disk Utility sees the drive, and begins to reformat, but hangs at about 10%, and it instantly shows more than 10 partitions but none of them successfully are created. Drive Genius just fails to initialize.
I tried a different hard drive, same result.
Apple Hardware Test and TTpro all show that hardware is OK.
Any ideas?
TiBook 500 MHz 512MB Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Reply
Hi James,
I'm not clear on some things:
"Rebooting from OSX disk hangs with a circle slash.
Same if I try to reboot with Diskwarrior CD or TTPro.
Removing the hard drive has the same result.
Correct. I cannot boot from ANY bootable CD except AHT, not even with the internal drive completely disconnected.
Booting from an external firewire utility drive is
successful, however I'm unable to successfully
reformat the hard drive. Disk Utility sees the drive,
and begins to reformat, but hangs at about 10%, and
it instantly shows more than 10 partitions but none
of them successfully are created. Drive Genius just
fails to initialize.
I tried a different hard drive, same result.
Apple Hardware Test and TTpro all show that hardware
is OK."
First you say you can't boot with DW or TTP, then you
say AHT and TTP show hardware is OK. So you
can boot with DW and TTP?
I cannot boot from ANY CD. But I CAN boot from an external firewire drive. My iPod is a diagnostic drive, which includes TTP and AHT. Oh, and I CAN boot from an AHT CD but only into AHT, not beyond AHT into the finder.
Are you running an OS on the external HD that's at
least as new as the one that originally shipped on
the PB?
Yes. It's the brand new version of Protogo that just came out in Jan 07. I've also tried CD's from 9.1 to 10.4.
Have you reseated your RAM? Tried with just one
module? Switched that module to the other slot?
Repeated same process with other module?
Yes, that was actually the first thing I tried.
If still no luck, try removing the bottom cover,
gently snugging up all the screws you can find,
flipping the keyboard up and doing the same, then try
booting (with bottom cover off).
If still no luck, I would try the
href="http://www.posner.net/marc/projects/TiBook/TiBoo
k.html">Orange Ribbon Cable Fix.
If still no luck, sounds like a logic board issue, or
possible the display cables in the hinges.
Tried that too...no change.

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Malygris1
I work on behalf of HP
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HP System Recovery DVD incorrectly formats hard drive (WIN Vista HP SP1 64-bit 510141-001)

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After doing a little research, I believe your issue may be related to your new hard drive being an AF (Advanced Format) drive. Please see "WD Scorpio® Blue™ SATA/PATA Hard Drives", which indicates your WD3200BPVT may an AF drive.
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+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
If you can still read the 25 character Microsoft Vista product key on the bottom of your PC, you can make your own plain Vista installation media and use that to at least get the OS on your PC.
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http://philipyip.wordpress.com/dell-community-forums/
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
You may also consider purchasing a copy of Windows 7 and installing that instead. Windows 7 SP1 has much better support for AF drives than the previous versions of Windows.
Please click the white KUDOS star to show your appreciation
Frank
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Quote from: technojunkie on 12-October-09, 20:32:04
Thanks for the posts.
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