Difficulty erasing and reformatting a former boot drive

[hmark6]

Greetings,

Let me start by apologizing if this question appears already in the forum somewhere. I searched extensively and nothing here seems to match my issue exactly, although some are similar.

I upgraded the HD in my MacBook (10.5.6), and the drive that I removed is now in a USB enclosure. I'd like to use the old drive as a portable, external. When I connect the old drive to my MacBook, the drive appears on the desktop as "Mac HD".

I've used Disk Utility to try to:

• Verify the drive and volume
• Repair the drive and Volume
• Erase the drive and volume
• Partition the drive into 1 GUID partition
• Do all of the above booting the machine from the MAC OSX 10.5 DVD
• Do all of the above on a separate machine (MacBook Pro 10.5.6)

Disk Utility beachballs, and I cannot eject the drive. In fact, Force Quit doesn't actually work until I yank the USB cord out.

I'm at the end of my rope for this one. I appeal to the forum's wisdom for council.

 

[BlueRevolution]

It could be the problem is with the enclosure. Is this something you bought for the purpose, or is there another drive you swapped out of there?

 

[hmark6]

It could be the problem is with the enclosure. Is this something you bought for the purpose, or is there another drive you swapped out of there?

I took the 60GB (which the MacBook came with) out and replaced it with a 250GB Western D. I then put the 60GB drive in a new, empty RocketFish enclosure.

 

[BlueRevolution]

Then my vote goes for a faulty enclosure. Check that all the cables are connected correctly, and try it with a different drive if possible. If that doesn't work, return it and get a new one.