Formatting Internal HDD on Snow Leopard

[Markleshark]

Afternoon all,

I noticed this morning my internal 1TB HDD I use for my Time Machine backups had disappeared from Finder, tried formatting/First Aid and I get the following error

Disk Erase failed with the error:

POSIX reports: The operation couldn’t be completed. Cannot allocate memory

Tried the fixes on MacFixIt but I get the following errors in Terminal

Started erase on disk1
Unmounting disk
Erasing
newfs_hfs: write (sector 0): Cannot allocate memory
Mounting disk
Could not mount disk1 with name (null) after erase
Error: -9944: File system formatter failed
Mark-Nicholsons-Mac-Pro:~ markleshark$

andddddd

fdisk: /dev/disk1: Permission denied

Any ideas? Could really do without the drive being cooked.

Thanks,
Mark.

 

[Hellhammer]

Have you booted from the install disk and tried its Disk Utility? Have another computer to try it with?

 

[Markleshark]

Don't have another computer to try it in, but I shall try booting off the install DVD and report back.

 

[Markleshark]

Nope, same faults when booting from Install DVD.

 

[Hellhammer]

Nope, same faults when booting from Install DVD.

Have you tried it on different SATA port? Are there any important files you need? If so, investing on DiskWarrior could be worth it

 

[Markleshark]

Nothing important, it's just my Time Machine backup drive, just means I'm currently running without a backup. I'll try a different SATA port tomorrow.

 

[Hellhammer]

Nothing important, it's just my Time Machine backup drive, just means I'm currently running without a backup. I'll try a different SATA port tomorrow.

Ahh okay! New HD is ~60$ anyway so not a big loss

 

[Markleshark]

Ahh okay! New HD is ~60$ anyway so not a big loss

Yeah, I know. It's been an expensive few months, so it's £50 I could have done without spending. However, you are right, it's not exactly earth shattering.

 

[InfinitEnd]

Yeah, I know. It's been an expensive few months, so it's £50 I could have done without spending. However, you are right, it's not exactly earth shattering.

I know this post is old but I was having the same problem with my 2009 MBP and thought others may be too. Orignal HD quit and I couldn't boot under any mode. Oddly enough when I disconnected the HD and plugged it back in, it fully booted before crashing, then back to the original failure to boot every time after. I bought and installed a new SSD but wasn't able to format/erase due to the same "cannot allocate memory" error using Disk Utility or Terminal. After playing with the SATA cable a bit just to make sure it had good connections I was able to format the drive and install 10.6 with no problems. I think that would explain why unplugging the original HD and plugging it back in allowed it to boot once. It's been a day since I installed OSX on the new SSD and I haven't had any problems. I'm going to replace the SATA cable just to be sure, but I think this may be the problem for others with older MBPs who are trying install a new drive.

If you're having this problem trying formatting the new HD via a USB/SATA cable (instead of in your macs HD bay) before you return the drive or give up. Worst case you'll rule out the SATA connection, but this worked for me.