My Internal HD crashed a couple months ago, so I bought a WD Scorpio Blue 320gb Sata HD.
After I installed the HD, I went into the Disk Utility to try and format it and I get an input/output error (log says "error \n" ) . CAN ANYONE HELP PLZ ??
(she had the same issue with her Macbook *black version*, but she followed the same steps I did and it worked).
I also ran a "hardware test" and everything was fine.
Make sure your new hard drive has a GUID partition created with Disk Utility.
I tried the GUID partition but I still get the same error.
Connect your macbook to your friend's macbook with a firewire cable then boot your MB while holding down the T key on your keyboard and check if your HD mount on your friend's desktop or if you can see it with Disk Utility. If so try to format and install OS with source machine.
Or remove your HD from your MB, put it in an external 2.5" sata enclosure and try to format it with your friend's macbook.
+ Along with all of lemerise's good advice, I would make sure the jumper on the drive is set for 1.5GBs and not for 3GBs.