Can't format or use internal hard drive

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Level 1

104 points

Can't format or use internal hard drive

I have a 2007 MacBook that was running 10.6.8 on a replacement HD (500 GB). I've gotten a new MB Air and want to wipe the HD and reinstall the system so my kids can use the old MB. The MacBook was working fine when I started this process. When I booted with the original install disk and selected Disk Utility to erase the drive, Erase failed with an "input/output error." I can't format the drive and I can't even select the drive to re-install without erasing the drive (no drive shows up in the installer). This is happening whenever I try it now.

Now I can't even use the HD to boot the MacBook. Disk Utility can see the drive but it shows up as a 3.6TB drive, not a 500GB drive, and it's only one line in the sidebar (usually there are two lines per drive). Info is backed up so I don't care if I lose everything, but I'd like to be able to use the drive as this needs to be a low budget computer. Partitioning does nothing, all attempts to erase it fail. Next step is probably to remove it and try to erase it in an external enclosure.

Can anyone explain what might be going on? Why would the drive suddenly stop working to the point of not even being properly recognized when minutes before it worked fine? And what can I do about it?

Thanks.

Posted on Mar 19, 2016 8:43 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Mar 20, 2016 11:16 AM in response to CHP

Input output errors are mostly read errors. Which usually mean a failing drive. A tool like DiskWarrior might fix it, but you could (on Ebay) pick up a used drive for that price. Drives can fail with or without warnings. Sometimes it will be lags and spinning beach balls hard startups and no startup. Or you will run it, shut it down and then the next time it starts, it will not work. Disk utilities usually won't repair that kind of error.The only work around in utilities is to do an erase of the full drive and repartition ,if possible.

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Answer 2

CHP Author

Level 1

104 points

Mar 19, 2016 9:20 AM in response to my ginger

Thanks my ginger. I suppose that may be the case. It turns out, though, that I had my original HD from the MacBook that I had replaced. It has a full OS (along with OLD files) so I put that in an external HD and booted from that. Booted just fine. Then used that system's DU to erase and it erased fine! I'll now see if I can re-install the OS on that. I'll report back on what I find.

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Answer 3

CHP Author

Level 1

104 points

Mar 20, 2016 11:15 AM in response to CHP

Ultimately I was able to format and install on this hard drive. In essence, I swapped the drives (I installed the old HD in the MacBook and put the problem drive into an external case) and was then able not only to re-format the problem drive but also to install the OS. So it worked as an external drive but I couldn't install the OS when the drive was installed in the computer. The problem HD is now installed in the computer and working fine. So far it is SMART verified too (I know that's not a perfect indicator of drive health). Hope this helps others.

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