Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Can't format HDD

2

24CTGoldie

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 24, 2011
11
0
I know, search the forums - did that.
Let me explain - earlier this morning my MBP (Mid-2010) froze so I held the power button down and restarted. It only went to the gray apple screen so I went through DU from my snow leopard disk and couldn't resolve the problem.
I've had issues with this HDD before so I went to best buy and bought Seagate Momentus XT 500gb to replace the old 250gb that was almost full anyways.
I installed the drive, but now I cannot erase or partition the drive. I'm constanty receiving "The operation couldn't be completed. Cannot allocate memory."
I've done everything I could find on forums including using terminal to wipe the drive.
All I want to do is install snow leopard so that I can install lion and then restore from TM.

So what option do I have, other than putting the drive in a windows machine that I don't have or a case for the HDD? Or using tiger, that I don't have.
Feel like I'm screwed.
 
Last edited:
If you have an apple store around, I'd take it there for a genius appointment. That doesn't sound normal, so I think they would be more help
 
alust2013 said:
If you have an apple store around, I'd take it there for a genius appointment. That doesn't sound normal, so I think they would be more help
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply! I'm about 2 hours away from the nearest apple store and kinda need my Mac back tonight if possible.
 
alust2013 said:
Ah. I honestly couldn't tell you what to do about that. If disk utility can't make it work, I don't know what would.
Click to expand...

Fack. From what I've read, snow leopard has bug issues that cannot erase a new drive properly - is that correct?
 
Update - the HDD is no longer showing up in DU after resetting pram.

----------

Another update - now it's showing a dark gray circle with a line through it like a no smoking sign without the cigarette then the spinning gear below.

----------

And one more update before I go to bed - it booted back up with the install disk, but isn't showing the HDD anymore.
So, now I'm wondering if it's the SATA connection cable. Guess I'll be forced to hit an apple store and shell out some more cash :mad:
 
Installing the driver from begining is not necessary. Just format the HDD at first. You can uninstall the driver then format the HDD again. Hopes it work as well.
 
Solution

I went to the genius bar yesterday and spent 4 hours there. Keep in mind that I'm out of warranty.
They tried to erase the drive via target disk, lion DU, SL DU, and a net install, none of which worked.
Finally, I convinced them to sled the drive which was able to erase and partition the drive, however, my MBP couldn't install OSX because it was attempting to repartition the drive again.
It turns out that it was the SATA cable linking the drive to the motherboard. They replaced it without charging me labor. Total out the door was $17.

They even gave me a brand new charger because mine was misplaced at some point.

Another happy Apple customer :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back