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TECHINFO-0020712
TOPIC
Can I format any disk with Apple HD SC Setup or Drive Setup?
DISCUSSION
No. Hard disks that Apple builds into their products include a firmware response, which identifies the disk as an Apple-supplied disk, and is used in communicating with Apple's formatting utilities. Third-party disks normally do not identify themselves as being produced by Apple. Apple formatting software will therefore dim the format, initialize, or update functions when a non-Apple disk is selected for actions in the utility.
For this reason, when replacing or adding either an internal, or external disks to your Macintosh, Apple recommends choosing a third-party formatting utility that can initialize and update any disk.
An exception to the above is in the A/UX environment. The version of Apple HD SC Setup provided with A/UX does not check for the Apple disk firmware response. This is because in a UNIX environment, third-party disks are frequently used for expansion so the Apple disk identification was bypassed. 
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