new drive shows wrong capacity and won't partition

Question

new drive shows wrong capacity and won't partition

I have an Intel Core2 Duo iMac5,1 and I am trying to install a new hard drive. The disk I bought is a Seagate ST1000DX001 (1TB hybrid drive). I installed the disk, booted from the original install DVD and ran Disk Utility. This is where it gets weird. Disk Utility sees the 1TB disk as a 7.3TB disk. It correctly identifies the name as ST1000DC001-1CM162, however. When I select the "Partition" tab then the default size for a single partition is 7.28TB. I can't change this (I can, but it changes itself back to 7.28). Of course it also won't partition or erase it if I try (fails with input/output error). System Profiler also sees the correct model but incorrect capacity. Have you ever seen this before? Could it be a bad drive? Thanks, Dave.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.8), iMac5,1

Posted on Dec 4, 2013 12:12 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 4, 2013 10:18 PM in response to astronomerdave

I removed the HDD from the iMac and connected it to my MacBook Pro using a BlacX SATA docking station. The disk was immediately recognized as 1TB (although the model number wasn't shown as ST1000DC001 -- I forget just what it said now). I was able to partition and erase the disk seemingly fine. I reinstalled it into the iMac and it still shows up as a 7.28TB disk -- this time with a partition, however. But I cannot mount it nor erase it. Any action with it from the iMac now results in Disk Utility crashing.

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Answer 2

Dec 5, 2013 7:19 AM in response to astronomerdave

If I want to try a different version of the OS, how do I now eject the DVD that's in there?

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Answer 3

Dec 5, 2013 8:11 AM in response to astronomerdave

I ejected the disk by holding down the eject button on the keyboard while rebooting the computer. The Snow Leopard install DVD recognized the drive.

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