Help with new 500GB Seagate

[neilhart]

What am I overlooking?

New Seagate ST3500641A-RK (500GB bare Ultra ATA/100) in an external USB enclosure.

OS X Disk Utility (Tiger and Leopard) fault with an error message in the log:

"Partition failed for disk ST350064 1A Media Input/output error
Partition complete.

error with partition Input/output error"

The Apple machines are an old Mini Mac and a new MBP both with Leopard. I booted the MBP to an external copy of Tiger and had the same Disk Utility result.

While I can move the drive over to an XP machine and partition and do a NTFS format; where the drive is a-okay.

I was intending this drive to be my "TM" drive, so I would really like to get this 500GB drive on line.

Suggestions?

Thank you,
Neil.

 

[waldoj]

Ditto

I have precisely the same problem on my 1.66GHz DP mini.

I'm using a Newer Technologies Mac mini-style USB enclosure with a 200GB Maxtor in it. I've been using this drive as my backup drive for a year. Today I bought a USB-based 320GB LaCie to use as my Time Machine drive, deciding to use my old 200GB Maxtor as my iPhoto/iTunes drive. I partitioned the LaCie without difficulty. But when it came time to take the old 200GB drive down to one partition, Disk Utility couldn't do it.

No problem -- I copied all of the data off of the old drive onto the new 320GB one and erased the old drive. Nothin' doin'. I received precisely the same error as you. There's nothing useful in the error logs -- just more of the same, though there is the acknowledgement that it's a kernel-level error.

Again, this is not a new drive. It's one that has worked just fine. It would be a remarkable coincidence for the drive to fail mere minutes after I hooked up my new USB drive.

Tech Tool Pro hasn't been updated to work with Leopard yet, so it's Disk Utility or the command line. I don't have time to do any more debugging tonight, but if I do get it solved, I'll report back.

 

[visch1]

"Tech Tool Pro hasn't been updated to work with Leopard yet, so it's Disk Utility or the command line. I don't have time to do any more debugging tonight, but if I do get it solved, I'll report back.[/QUOTE]

I'd check further into that, as I understand its functions work if the machine is booted from the Tech Tool disk. It worked for me by repairing 2 drives that had some serious errors on them, both in enclosures.

 

[gr8tfly]

Just out of curiosity, try changing the partition map to GUID or APM (if you haven't already, that is).

 

[waldoj]

Just out of curiosity, try changing the partition map to GUID or APM (if you haven't already, that is).

In my case, I can't change the partition map -- I can't change anything, since everything generates that error message.

 

[neilhart]

Just out of curiosity, try changing the partition map to GUID or APM (if you haven't already, that is).

I have tried all the modes and get the same error.

I put in a trouble report at the Seagate support site and have not heard anything back. I currently have the drive (as an external USB) connected the the Mini Mac and it is writting 'Zeros' in Disk Utility Erase screen with 13 hours left to complete!

If I get a resolution from outside or inside, I will post it.

Thank you,
Neil.

 

[Wayne s]

I am having a similar problem (posted in the OSX forum) I think Leopard is at fault. Get the same input/output error. The HD I am/was using was working great until I tried to reformat it with Leopards disk utility.

 

[Dimwhit]

Maybe it's the external enclosure firmware that needs updating? I have a 500GB Seagate in an external enclosure, and Leopard formatted/uses it just fine.

 

[neilhart]

Maybe it's the external enclosure firmware that needs updating? I have a 500GB Seagate in an external enclosure, and Leopard formatted/uses it just fine.

That is a thought that passed through my mind. I have had a 300GB Maxtor in the enclosure and used it with Tiger Disk Utility with success. So I assumed that the enclosure was "good"... but don't assume.

Anyway, I will give it a go with another USB interface electronics late today and post the outcome.

Thanks,
Neil

 

[neilhart]

Well I give up!

I have better things to do. After installing the 10.5.1 update on the Mini, I get the same result.

The drive goes back to Fry's and I won't have to deal with it. No answer from Seagate at this point.

Thanks for the input and help.

Neil.

 

[neilhart]

Follow Up

I retuned the Seagate drive and picked up a Maxtor 500GB model STM305004N1AAA-RK (on sale this weekend). This drive is very similar to the Seagate.

Disk Utility immediately identified the drive and it is now my TM drive.

Neil

 

[waldoj]

Repeated on Tiger

I just moved the drive in question from my Leopard mini to my wife's Tiger G4 (1GHz MDD) and repeated the process. Same results. Same error ("input/output error").

What are the odds of an apparently healthy hard drive failing within minutes (2-5, IIRC) of copying all of its data onto a new drive? I've run Tech Tool Pro's suite of maintenance tools on my drives every night for months now, and it never reported any problems of consequence. I booted into Tech Tool Pro and ran its various repair detection tools on the drive. It found not a thing wrong with the drive.

Something's going on here, but I don't know what. This just doesn't add up. Neil, unlike you, I bought this drive several years ago, so there's no returning it. I'm not yet ready to up and buy a new drive -- it seems like cheating -- but it may come to that. The next step, I suppose, is to track down a Windows machine and see how it fares on that.

 

[waldoj]

Fixed

I've reformatted the drive on Windows (via Parallels) and then converted it from NTFS to journaled in Disk Utility. It works just fine now.

Clearly, this is not a hardware problem, but a Mac OS 10.5 bug.