Solved Disk Utility On Internet Recovery Will Not Format Guid Mac Os Extend Macbook Pro 13 Unibody Mid 2012

Chosen Solution

I swapped the hard drive on a mid 2012 13" macbook pro to an ADATA SU800 512 GB. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as… Using Internet Recovery I am trying to reinstall the OS onto the system. Disk Utility refuses to format the drive into the Mac OS Extended format. It always fails with the error “Partition failed with the error: File system formatter failed.” It WILL succeed for MS-DOS (FAT). Both attempts were with GUID. I am out of ideas on how to fix this and it’s pretty frustrating. Is the drive itself somehow incompatible with the Mac OS file system?

Apple will replace the cable on this particular model for free, no questions asked. UPDATE To my knowledge Apple has not announced this to the public and pretty well keeps its mouth shut about the program. That’s why you pay ME the big bucks on this site! ;-)

From what you’ve stated here I’m suspecting the HD drive cable is glitchy which is why you’re having a hard time here. You’ll need to replace it. Here’s the IFIXIT guide to do it: MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2012 Hard Drive Cable Replacement and here is the part you need: MacBook Pro 13" Unibody (Mid 2012) Hard Drive Cable. As to why you can format the drive with FAT and unable to setup GUID partition map & Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition gets into some deep stuff here on the how these are setup and how the drive is stressed when doing it. Without getting too deep here FAT formats are very light weight unlike GUID. So the stress on the connection is whats setting things off. You can prove this to your self by using a SATA to USB connection with a device like this: Startech 2.5" SATA to USB adapter. I’ll even guess if you connect up your HD to it, it will work as well!

Would it be possible for you to put the drive into a external casing such as this one, put the old drive back in the Mac, then connect the new drive via USB, and format it that way? It might work, it might not. (The product linked is just one I found on Newegg, I haven’t used it so cannot speak to its quality etc) Best of luck with your upgrade!