Problems formatting new harddrive in Macbook Pro

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Level 1

8 points

Problems formatting new harddrive in Macbook Pro

Hi,

My internal harddrive in my MacBook Pro mid 2012 broke down. So I have installed a new harddrive a Seagate Hybrid Drives ST1000LM014 1TB which a according to IFIXIT.com shoud be compatible.

I have then started up the Macbook from the Apple server and gone in to Disk Utillity to format the harddrive. The harddrive is visible and I then go in partition, choose 1 partition, Mac OS X (journaled) + GUID. But while doing the partition I get the error message that formatting file system failed.

I have tried different options in Disk Utillity and I'm able to format the disk using FAT or ExFat. But that doesn't help me to use the harddrive in my mac.

Does anybody have any ideas about what to do? And does it seem like a problem with the functionality of the harddrive?

Thanks

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Feb 9, 2016 12:08 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

127,189 points

Feb 10, 2016 8:16 AM in response to Englehop

You must select the drive by Hardware-name (top-level, outermost descriptor), not by Volume-name.

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Answer 2

Englehop Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 9, 2016 12:27 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I'm pretty sure I do choose by hardware-name and not Volume-name, since that is the only time when the partitioning meny becomes available. Right?

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Answer 3

Feb 10, 2016 8:16 AM in response to Englehop

Try selecting by Hardware-name and choosing ERASE instead.

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Answer 4

Englehop Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 9, 2016 12:56 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks for trying to help Grant Bennet-Alder. Same message that formatting file system failed (my translation from danish to english), unfortunately.

The computer came with Mountain Lion and when I start up from the Apple server over the internet the only option of installing OS X is Mountain Lion. I don't know if that could influence anything.

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Answer 5

Feb 9, 2016 1:36 PM in response to Englehop

Sometimes these drives come formatted with partition types Mac OS X does not write, such as Windows New Technology File System (NTFS). The Mac does not want to overwrite important data from another OS.

if you have another computer available and can erase the drive on it, that sometimes solves the problem.

Otherwise, you may need to look to the Vendor (who made money selling you this drive) for assistance.

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Answer 6

Englehop Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 10, 2016 8:22 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi,

Ok, I think your advise solved my problem. Adleast OS X is now downloadning on the harddrive. Following your advise I took the harddrive out of the computer again. Mounted into a case so I could connect it to my other mac using usb. This mac is running El Capitan and using Disk Utility I could without a problem format the harddrive to OS X Journaled + GUID. I then put the harddrive back into the first mac and it seems to be working.

Thanks!!!

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