Can't format hard drive in Leopard?

[SuperSnake2012]

I'm trying to format my external hard drive so I can get all the junk off to use for Time Machine. In Disk Utility when I try to format it, it gives me an error:

I can eject it from Finder. I've tried restarting, unplugging and plugging it back in but I keep getting this error. Any ideas? I'm using an enclosure w/ USB 2.0. I'm using the original hard drive that came with my Macbook (Seagate 80GB drive) for the external.

 

[SuperSnake2012]

Bump!

 

[plightbo]

I'm having the _exact_ same problem on both my laptops that I upgraded yesterday. It also happens on both of the brand new external hard drives I picked up from Costco, over both USB and Firewire. Seems to me like something is really busted with Disk Utility on Leapard

 

[plightbo]

Turns out I got this working by using a tiny 1GB empty partition. For some reason when doing that the format would go through. Strange.