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Level 1

3 points

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

Hi, I've got a HP SimpleSave 2Tb external hard drive that I'm trying to fix for a friend, they said it stopped working so I plugged it in to my iMac and Finder told me I needed to initialize the disk because there were no volumes on it, so I tried everything in Disk Utility, Partitioning, erasing, restoring, all the tricks and nothing worked. Every time I got the same error : "Disk Erase failed with the error: POSIX reports: The operation couldn’t be completed. Cannot allocate memory"
I tried some diskutil and fdisk commands in Terminal and still nothing works.
I was wondering if there's ANYTHING I can do to try and get it back? I don't even need to get the files back just the hard drive itself. Please help if you know anything.

Thanks in advance
Harry

iMac 20", Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 8, 2011 3:46 AM

Best reply

KJK555

Level 4

2,900 points

Posted on Mar 8, 2011 10:18 AM

Probably the partition table is corrupt. When it does this, it becomes difficult to
unmount (actually it gets stuck in a loop trying to mount the file system, to no avail
because the file system is corrupt).

This procedure forces a dismount, but does not eject the drive.
This breaks the loop and allows erasing the partition table:

open terminal.app

note: I wrote these instructions were for a boot volume
with that condition (booting from the install DVD), so the
disk numbers are not going to be accurate.

at the prompt:
diskutil list
(press enter)
that will give you the device name of your drive.
It most likely will be "disk0".

next command:
diskutil unmount force /dev/<disk_name>
example:
diskutil unmount force /dev/disk0

next command:
diskutil zeroDisk /dev/<disk_name>
example:
diskutil zeroDisk /dev/disk0
(press return)

After disk is zeroed, you may resume normal partitioning.
#

Bear in mind, since this is an external disk, the USB/ translation layer
may interfere with accessing the disk directly and foul up the procedure.

Looking at the drive specs, it says it only supports use under windows,
whatever that means. Perhaps it requires a proprietary USB driver or something.
Some folks claim it works on a Mac though.
http://techpatio.com/2010/reviews/hp-simplesave-2tb-usb-launcher-mac-blue-led

The USB interface (inside the unit) might be hosed.
Sales poop says it has a two year warranty. If still in warranty, send it back.

Kj

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36 replies

Apr 12, 2014 7:42 PM in response to stoked7

Hi. Thanks very much for this suggestion. I found a Firewire cable and tried to erase the disk—with the 7-pass method–and I am not getting the error. However, the estimated time is a whopping 48 DAYS, 6 hours! Is that normal?

Aug 22, 2015 2:14 AM in response to sheilafrombelmont

Guys,

The below Quick fix helps to resolve this. I managed to solve exactly the same issue using these steps; only catch being you will need to let go all your data after these steps for the Volume to be accessible again.

http://www.macissues.com/2014/04/05/how-to-fix-deep-formatting-problems-with-os- x-drives/

dfmpgh

Level 1

0 points

Feb 12, 2016 2:09 PM in response to HJATKINS

I just had a similar problem. For me, at least, once I figured it out the solution was startlingly easy: while Disk Utility on Yosemite would not format it no matter what I tried, using the one on El Capitan appears to have worked fine (other than its attempts to unmount the disk on my behalf failed, but I could unmount it myself without any difficulty).

Your mileage may vary (and so might mine: it will be interesting to see if all continues to work OK into the future).

Jun 9, 2016 7:48 PM in response to Silly rabbit

Hello dear,

I have an the same issue with an internal Hard Disk

please I need your help. I'm trying to format an old iMac 2008, but I tryed a lot of different ways with no success.

"Posix reports: the operation couldn't be completed. Cannot allocate memory."

I created 4 discs of boot, El Capitan, Mavericks, Lion, etc.

Is possible to format with a Windows 7 stick??

Is possible to clean or reset the internal hard disk by terminal ??? without open the iMac?

How is the best way to do fix this please?

thanks a lot

Eric Root

Level 10

684,045 points

Jun 10, 2016 10:29 AM in response to facoriolano

You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is a couple of years old, less people are likely to look at it. You can link to this one.

Aug 9, 2017 12:51 PM in response to KJK555

what if this didn't work like the mount came back?

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