Disk is too small to contain partitions

[tanman405]

I just replaced my old, corrupt 500 gb hard drive in my 2010 15-inch macbook pro with a new 256gb solid state drive from crucial. I used the os x install dvd (10.6.3) the macbook originally came with to install os x. When I get to the window about where to install os x, the new hard drive does not show up on the screen. When I go to disk utility to try and partition the new drive there is message on the button saying "Disk is too small to contain partitions". It even says 0 bytes next to the disk's total capacity. What do I do to properly format the disk so that I can install os x? Im not sure if it will help but I included a picture of the info window about the hard drive in the attachment. Thank you in advance for any help.

 

[Fishrrman]

The new drive probably needs to be initialized the Mac format -- HFS+ with journaling enabled. You can do this with Disk Utility.

If you can boot from the 10.6.3 install DVD, you need to go to the menu and choose Disk Utility and do this operation first, BEFORE you try to install the OS.

Does this help?

 

[tanman405]

Unless Im looking at this the wrong way, it actually looks like it is formatted as mac os x extended (journaled). I have a picture of this attached.

 

[monokitty]

Unless Im looking at this the wrong way, it actually looks like it is formatted as mac os x extended (journaled). I have a picture of this attached.

That isn't formatted. Format it via the Erase tab. Then go to the Partitions tab.

 

[Quackers]

As above, erase and format first then partition at will.

 

[tanman405]

Im at the erase tab, but the buttons are greyed out and cannot be clicked.

 

[yjchua95]

Unless Im looking at this the wrong way, it actually looks like it is formatted as mac os x extended (journaled). I have a picture of this attached.

It's not formatted yet.

Either you go to the Erase tab and format it there, or in the partition tab, you first change 'Current' to '1 Partition', and then under Options, select GUID Partition Table and partition it.

 

[tanman405]

Using a usb enclosure I have connected the SSD to my newer mac as an external drive and try to partition it using the disk utility on that computer. I try to partition it as one, but i get a message saying "partition failed: Unable to write the last block of the device". What does this mean and how should I respond?

 

[DeltaMac]

I thought that you said you have a 256 GB SSD...
Why does your picture show a (Seagate) 2.2 TB drive?

I suspect you may be trying to use a Seagate USB case that is not compatible with anything except a Seagate drive... (?)

 

[tanman405]

I just noticed that. I may have to try another way to connect the SSD with my newer macbook pro.