Disk utility on OSX and gParted both fail to format a drive
Two possible problems IMHO:  

1) Faulty disk, bad blocks on it.
2) Corrupted GUID (usually mac disks aren't formatted with MBR)  

Possible check/solutions:

1) How to check for bad blocks without formatting.
2) View my answer here.  

However, if you can provide an exit error number while trying to format disk with disk utility it's easier to identify the exact origin of your issue.