timfl2448
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Q: Unable to initialize internal 8Tb Seagate drive

I recently purchased an 8Tb Seagate 3.5 inch SATA HDD to use as an internal Time Machine disk on my mid-2010 Mac Pro. When I tried to initialize the disk with Disk Utility, I got an error: "unable to write to the last block of the device."

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Aug 4, 2016 11:26 AM

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timfl2448

Q: Unable to initialize internal 8Tb Seagate drive

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  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Aug 4, 2016 12:18 PM in response to timfl2448
    Level 10 (188,143 points)
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    Aug 4, 2016 12:18 PM in response to timfl2448

    Did you try erasing the drive?

    There is a bug in 10.8.4 and later, and has not yet been fixed the prevents erasing drives larger than 2.2 GB when installed internally. Work arounds are to:

    - use a Disk Utility from any older Mac OS X, including the 10.6 DVD (if your Mac can boot from it) or any saved Installer DVD or thumb drive will work.

    - Another work-around is to move that drive to an external enclosure and Erase it there (provided your enclosure is modern enough to deal with drives over 2.2TB.

  • by timfl2448,

    timfl2448 timfl2448 Aug 4, 2016 1:11 PM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    Aug 4, 2016 1:11 PM in response to lllaass

    Thanks. Here's what I did:

     

    Re-started from 10.6 install DVD disk. Opened Disk Utility. Drive did not appear in list. Opened System Profiler> Serial ATA Drives> "error reading serial-ata"

     

    Re-started from a 10.6.8 internal ssd drive. Opened Disk Utility. Erase failed with memory failure message.

     

    A little history:

    I began this journey by having to buy an external dock for the drive as the screw pattern on the drive didn't match the sled (I have since purchased the correct sled and that's what I'm using). Since the external dock was USB 3.0, I bought a PCI card for USB 3.0. The PCI card had a 4pin cable power attachment, that didn't match anything on my board. In desperation, I nipped off one of the tabs at the end of the cable and plugged it into the power outlet for one of the internal drive bays. I know, I know. But it worked just fine. Except I got the "unable to write to the last block" error. This was with OS 10.10. SO I guess maybe my next step is to re-try that setup with the 10.6 disk?

  • by timfl2448,

    timfl2448 timfl2448 Aug 4, 2016 3:35 PM in response to timfl2448
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    Aug 4, 2016 3:35 PM in response to timfl2448

    Well, that didn't work either.

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Aug 4, 2016 5:36 PM in response to timfl2448
    Level 9 (60,774 points)
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    Aug 4, 2016 5:36 PM in response to timfl2448

    "Did not work" means what? error message, power down, explosion?

  • by timfl2448,

    timfl2448 timfl2448 Aug 4, 2016 5:49 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    Aug 4, 2016 5:49 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    Sorry. I tried the external setup described above (external dock).

    Using the setup disk as boot drive and opening disk utility, I get the same error message as before:

    "unable to write to the last block of the device" 

    Rebooted using the 10.6 ssd, the message is "cannot allocate memory."

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Aug 4, 2016 6:03 PM in response to timfl2448
    Level 9 (60,774 points)
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    Aug 4, 2016 6:03 PM in response to timfl2448

    so all of this is in the external enclosure? If so, it seems more likely to be an enclosure problem than a drive problem.

     

    Can you boot your Mac from some version of 10.6 and partition it as an internal drive?

  • by timfl2448,

    timfl2448 timfl2448 Aug 4, 2016 6:06 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    Aug 4, 2016 6:06 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    It's external or internal. Doesn't matter

  • by timfl2448,

    timfl2448 timfl2448 Aug 4, 2016 6:07 PM in response to timfl2448
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    Aug 4, 2016 6:07 PM in response to timfl2448

    Using 10.6

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Aug 4, 2016 6:11 PM in response to timfl2448
    Level 9 (60,774 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 4, 2016 6:11 PM in response to timfl2448

    "unable to write to the last block of the device"

     

    That should not be happening. Contact the vendor for help. If they cannot help or supply a different drive, return it. Part of the money you spent is for their support.