Trying to install/format an INTERNAL hard drive using Disk Utility gives me "Error: -69760: Unable to write to the last block of the device". Is that a hardware problem and what could be done about it?

*** PLEASE NOTE*** - This is a query about an INTERNAL HDD not an external one. Thanks.
My Mac is a late 2009 model and the current hard drive recently failed. So I bought a new one, exactly the same, albeit 750gb instead of 500gb. The HDD is a Seagate Momentus 7200. Before the my current drive failed I made a time machine back up to an external USB HDD. I've inserted the HDD into the bottom of my Mac, plugged in the USB and started my machine pressing the 'Option' ([ALT]) key. I go into Disk Utility to try and format the new HDD by creating a new partition but I keep getting the messages,
"Error: -69760: Unable to write to the last block of the device"
or
"POSIX: could not allocate memory"
This is actaully the third HDD I've tried. The first was another Seagate Momentus 7200 500gb, but this time it was a newer model (model number ended in 423AS instead of 420AS - the new one I am trying ends with 420AS, which is the same as the current HDD). I then tried a Western Digital drive but that one didn't even show up in DU. Forums and tech support are suggesting it's faults with the HDDs but surely not three in a row?
Could this be an issue with another part of my Mac?
Is there anything else I can do to format the HDD, have I missed a crucial step?

Did you ever get a resolution to this issue?
I am having that exact error with a new 512GB SSD from Crucial, in a 15" MBP mid-2010.
I really wonder now if the stupid SATA cable could be bad - causing the initial SSD fail. I am replacing it with the EXACT same drive, and getting that "last block" error when i partition in the GUI or from command-line.
thanks!

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Hey folks,
I need to do a repair of my internal hard drive on my PB. I understand that in order to do this, you need to boot from another disk. I cloned my hard drive using CCC to an external firewire hard drive so I can boot from the external.
So I shut down and rebooted while holding the option key but the external hard drive did not appear as a choice for which to boot. So I booted with the internal and went to the Start Up Disk icon in System Preferences. There, the external appeared so I told it to restart using it.
After restart I went to the Disk Utility to repair the internal but when I did, the "repair" button would not illuminate. I'm pretty sure I'm running off the external because when I use spotlight, it searches the external and not the internal.
Any ideas?
(I'm trying to boot off an external because I cannot find my OS X disc referenced here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6642196#6642196)

If the "repair" button does is not selectable, maybe you indeed restarted using the same INTERNAL drive by mistake? Also, it could be that your INTERNAL hard drive is beyond repair, as which happened to my PowerMac's a few weeks ago and I--which I just mentioned on another forum--had to buy Data Rescue II to salvage my data because the only solution was to reformat the drive. It was beyond repair.
I don't know if this helps, but which did you select? The disk itself? (first in the hierarchy) or the volume (second in the hierarchy... list). Sometimes that matters. But I couldn't tell you since I can't see your screen and don't know your exact issue unless I saw it or was able to test it out.
The other thing could be, are you selecting the EXTERNAL by mistake on the list of drives on the left? You can't repair the disk/volume that you are booted up from, why you would need your software discs / restore discs to do that. But since you are doing it the "workaround" way, which should work, that is my guess.
Message was edited by: Pismo 900
Just a suggestion, why not just erase and reformat the damaged drive, and then once that's over, do a "Restore" from Disk Utility, choosing your external as the SOURCE and the internal that's been reformatted, as the DESTINATION.

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A terrible idea. Never use a backup drive for anything but a backup drive. Get another drive for experimenting.
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Drive Preparation
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You can add a partition to the drive. In Disk Utility select the drive and then select the Partition Tab. The current partition layout is shown.
Grab the resize handle in the lower righthand corner of the partition display and drag it the size you want. Click in the new empty gray area and click the + sign, the new partition will be displayed. Enter the information for the partition, name and format and apply.
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While this procedure is safe for the data on the disk as always whenever doing any system work like this a good working backup is highly recommended. And if you get to a point where you are not sure of what you are doing you can select revert to restore the settings as they are now, at anytime before you hot apply.
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I upgraded my internal Boot Drive, used Disk Utility to image and restore..

...Time Machine still recognizes my external drive as the backup disk, and I can still go back in time to bring something back using it.
The problem is that, time machine thinks it needs to backup everything that is on my restored internal drive. So what I have now is this--
Full Backup from original Leopard launch
Incremental Backups
Full Backup (in progress now) since imaging my old internal drive to a new one.
My question: how can I turn what is happening now (a full backup of the present), into an incremental backup (where it should leave off, since it is an image of the same drive)?

Unfortunately, nobody can tell you what you're likely to be able to restore. You can only try. See Recovering deleted files for some suggestions.
The encrypted sparse bundles are the big problem. If all the individual "bands" of the sparse bundle are still intact, you should be able to recover them, although if the recovery software is unable to recover the directory structure, I imagine it may be difficult to piece them back together.
However, if even a few bytes of a single band file have been overwritten, the entire sparse bundle is ruined. You'll never get it open again. A recovery service is not likely to be of any help in that case.
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Unable to verify or repair my external hard drive with disk utility, reason being ...

Hello there,
I have been facing this problem: After I started getting an error 50 error while trying to view in Quicktime player a movie which I had exported from FCPX today, I found that I was not even able to trash the movie [this was a test movie used for export and I had no need for the same]. A little while later when I opened FCPX, I found this message pop up:
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Hello Klaus,
I think I have been able to overcome the problem/s.
I have been using my Seagate 2 TB drive [2 USB] with a FW adapter and was using FW connectivity for the past several months without any problems. About 2 months ago I added a 2 TB Lacie, FW, to my workflow and this EHD was daisychained to the Seagate. Had been facing no problem with this arrangement until today.
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I ejected the Seagate drive with the intention of reconnecting it again. But, no, when I tried to reconnect, this message came up:
After several attempts, I did this, connected the Lacie by FW to the FW port on the Mac and connected the Seagate by 2 USB. Was I glad to see my Seagate HD icons shining in all their glory on my desktop! I utilised the services of disk utility and was informed that these prodigal sons were absolutely fine.
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I'm trying to create a new partition in disk utility in an external hard drive using disk utility and every time I click Apply it says that "Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and can't continue. Quit and relaunch Disk Utility". It is a 3TB hard disk and I already created the first partition of 2 TB, and when I click the + symbol to add a 1 TB partition and click Apply is when the error shows up. I have restart the mac, unplugged the hard disk but the error still shows up. Anyone has any idea??? Thanks for your help in advance
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Type:    Empty
Speed:    Empty
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Manufacturer:    Empty
Part Number:    Empty
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Type:    Empty
Speed:    Empty
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Manufacturer:    Empty
Part Number:    Empty
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Type:    Empty
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Trying to install/format an INTERNAL hard drive using Disk Utility gives me "Error: -69760: Unable to write to the last block of the device". Is that a hardware problem and what could be done about it?

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