Can't format WD RE3 internal drive on my Mac Pro

Does the drive appear in the device list of Disk Utility? If not then then the drive is not recognized for some reason. If it does appear in the list then do this:

Drive Partition and Format

1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.

2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.

5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.

6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.

So, you do not see this in DU?

The drive is selected as you see above for the orange icons. One partition has been selected from the dropdown menu. The format is selected or set from the Format type dropdown menu.

Try WD LIFEGUARD it is great at testing zero format, it can be run from a linux CD or from in Windows, otherwise zero size = out of luck

My guess is:

1. The drive is defective.
2. The drive uses a 6.0 Gb/s interface, the computer only supports 3 Gb/s, and the drive needs to be set for use on the slower bus. Contact WD support to see if that's the case with this particular model.

Kappy have to ask but HAVE YOU EVER SEEN SUCH A DRIVE?

Never heard of a drive that would ONLY work on SATA III.

Vendors can't afford to.

I heard of ONE instance of an old SATA 1.0 very old drive that worked in a Mac Pro 1,1 but will not work in a 4,1 2009 model.

We use to see people have or claim that they had trouble with WD Green drives. A person had trouble with WD RED (their NAS/RAID optimized firmware model). And you with this RE3 though in the past the RE-series were more common they also have optimized firmware but when the post lacks WHICH Mac Pro that could be an issue. Also the drive part number could help you google and when it was built.

Where did I ever say that? I have, however, heard of WD drives that simply will not work in Macs. I can't say if that is the case for this particular model. But some 6 Gb/s drives from WD do not drop down automatically to 3 Gb/s, and some will not work on 1.5 Gb/s interfaces.

You burn a CD.

WD Black are fine and any enterprise drive. WD RED are designed for a NAS or RAID box.

All drives today in 7.2k are 1TB and above. There are WD 10K VelocityRaptor as well, cost a lot more for same 1TB.

I'd recommend you pick up a couple WD Black 2TB, one for media, one as clone, and get a WD Green drive for TimeMachine.

WD Black go all the way to 4TB now.