Macdrone said:

Should not be hfs. The fact it formats means it's probably fine. The issue lies in the Mac most likely.

Has the CC been recapped as my last CC seemed to "brick" hard drives before I had it done. When not recapped or has iffy traces it can be very temperamental if anything works at all. I used had disk toolkit when i use third party drives. It's usually pretty easy to get a hold of.

Another thing to check is the card itself in the slot. The fact it's smaller than the hard drive and weight on the flimsy slide in connection when the whole computer is at an angle inside already may make it flaky also. Also bent pins along the while chassis plug inside. One pin can cause a bunch of havok.

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Lido from the post below seems to have solved the problem.  I'd never heard of it, though I think I may have used Hard Disk Toolkit once long ago.

The logic board is freshly recapped.  It was my first successful attempt at it and I'm rather proud of myself for it.  The screen is bright and crisp and the case is only very slightly yellowed.  It gives off a high pitched whine every now and then (probably the flyback transformer) but it doesn't do it often or long, and you occasionally have to hot-plug the ADB cord to get the keyboard and mouse to work after a cold boot but is otherwise a very happy machine.

It came with both the original CC board and the LC550 board.  The LC550 board really makes it very pleasant to use.