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Question

mac os x installer doesnt see hard drive

Aug 23, 2011 9:23PM PDT

working with a macbook pro here.i typically repair windows systems,so i need ya'll to bear with me as this is the deepest ive ever dived into a mac.heck,ive got more experience with linux.but i do need to branch out,and no time like the present!
anyway,it will not see the hard drive at all,and it definitely PHYSICALLY works.i feel it spinning.when i go into the disk utility,it'll show the hard drive the first time like from a restart or a hard boot,sees that it is 320GB and all,i tried to create the partition,i even tried creating 2 partitions,one for data,and one for system,295 and 25 GB respectively,and the partition failed.got a "posix reports:the operation could not be complete.device not configured" or some jazz like that.is this hard drive shot or can it be recovered?please remember im new on this,so please dont assume i'll automatically know everything you'll be talking about or where to find it.i appreciate any help i can get,thank you guys!
Mike

Discussion is locked

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Answer
If this is the HD that was originally in the MBP,
Aug 23, 2011 10:01PM PDT

then it is almost certainly shot.
However, the Disk Utility cannot repair a drive that is the current boot drive, although it should be able to partition the drive.
The fact that it cannot would indicate a problem with the drive.
You will need to boot that MBP from another source, the OS X installation disk and attempt to repair the disk using the Disk Utility that is on the install disk.
There is really no point in partitioning that drive, OS X takes care of just about everything so there is really no advantage to the partition.

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Answer
Sounds like a dead drive
Aug 23, 2011 11:11PM PDT

Sounds like a dead drive, though there IS a possibility that it's the HDD/SIL bracket/cable. Before declaring the drive dead, pop it into an external enclosure and see if the installer's copy of disk utility can partition it successfully then. If it works fine in an external enclosure, you need to replace the bracket connecting the drive to the MLB. And of course if it still fails to work in an external enclosure, the drive is toast, replace it and move on.