Cannot partition external USB hard drives

I have 2 IDE hard drives, Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 200GB and Hitachi Deskstar 7200rpm 250GB, that I have attached via a Vantec NexStar NST-350U2 external USB enclosure. I have a MBP running Leopard.

I'm am trying to create a single GUID partition and format the drives with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using Disk Utility. When I attempt to create a partition it hangs at "Creating partition map". Here is the log:

2007-11-08 08:22:41 -0500: Disk Utility started.

2007-11-08 08:23:41 -0500: Preparing to partition disk: “USB 2.0 Storage Device Media”
2007-11-08 08:23:41 -0500: Partition Scheme: GUID Partition Table
2007-11-08 08:23:41 -0500: 1 volume will be created
2007-11-08 08:23:41 -0500:
2007-11-08 08:23:41 -0500: Partition 1
2007-11-08 08:23:41 -0500: Name : “Seagate”
2007-11-08 08:23:41 -0500: Size : 186.3 GB
2007-11-08 08:23:41 -0500: Filesystem : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
2007-11-08 08:23:41 -0500:
2007-11-08 08:23:41 -0500: Creating partition map.
2007-11-08 08:32:07 -0500: Partition failed for disk USB 2.0 Storage Device Media Input/output error
2007-11-08 08:32:08 -0500: Partition complete.
2007-11-08 08:32:08 -0500:
2007-11-08 08:32:08 -0500: Error with partition: Input/output error

The funny things is that I was able to do this on the drives before. I am having some trouble with Time Machine and I needed to erase the drives numerous times during my troubleshooting. I can also partition and format the drives in WinXP without a problem.

Any help is much appreciated.

Don't know if this will help, but I would try and zero out the hard drives.

I have noticed that sometime when I need to format and partition a HD, it acts like something is still writing to the disk and not letting me format it correctly.

If you go to http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/discwizard and d/l the diskwizard, then burn it to a CD.

If you connect the extra HD's to your Windows Box and then boot up your Windows with the diskwizard in the CD-Rom, you will have the option to zero out any drive connected to your computer.

It may take a while to zero out a large HD, but when it is done it will be completely wiped clean. After that I would try and hook it up to you Mac again and try to format.

Hope that helps. Good Luck.

@powerbook - that worked perfectly! Thank you very much.

Excellent, glad I could help. Have fun.

-powerbook

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I have the same problem with my Western Digital Caviar 200GB drive. I have it mounted in an enclosure going through USB 2.0.


2008-08-29 22:11:19 +0900: Preparing to erase : “Untitled”
2008-08-29 22:11:19 +0900: Partition Scheme: GUID Partition Table
2008-08-29 22:11:19 +0900: 1 volume will be created
2008-08-29 22:11:19 +0900: Name : “Untitled”
2008-08-29 22:11:19 +0900: Size : 186.3 GB
2008-08-29 22:11:19 +0900: Filesystem : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

2008-08-29 22:11:19 +0900: Creating partition map.
2008-08-29 22:11:19 +0900: Disk Erase failed with the error:

Input/output error
2008-08-29 22:11:20 +0900: Erase complete.
2008-08-29 22:11:20 +0900:
2008-08-29 22:11:20 +0900: Erase complete.
2008-08-29 22:11:20 +0900:
2008-08-29 22:11:20 +0900: Error with partition Input/output error
2008-08-29 22:11:21 +0900: Erase complete.
2008-08-29 22:11:21 +0900:
2008-08-29 22:12:55 +0900: Preparing to partition disk: “WDC WD20 00JB-00GVA0 Media”
2008-08-29 22:12:55 +0900: Partition Scheme: Apple Partition Map
2008-08-29 22:12:55 +0900: 1 volume will be created
2008-08-29 22:12:55 +0900:
2008-08-29 22:12:55 +0900: Partition 1
2008-08-29 22:12:55 +0900: Name : “Untitled 1”
2008-08-29 22:12:55 +0900: Size : 186.3 GB
2008-08-29 22:12:55 +0900: Filesystem : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
2008-08-29 22:12:55 +0900:
2008-08-29 22:12:55 +0900: Creating partition map.
2008-08-29 22:12:56 +0900: Partition failed for disk WDC WD20 00JB-00GVA0 Media Input/output error
2008-08-29 22:12:56 +0900: Partition complete.
2008-08-29 22:12:56 +0900:
2008-08-29 22:12:57 +0900: Error with partition: Input/output error


Thanks in advanced!