Workaround for Disk Utility "Unable to write to the last block of the device"

I got a new Mushkin solid state disk (SSD) for my 2011-era Macbook Pro running OS X 10.7.5 and when I went to format the thing, Disk Utility kept returning: “Unable to write to the last block of the device".

I got the same error when I booted up in recovery mode (holding Option and then picking the Recovery HD). 

However, when I put the SSD in a USB enclosure and connected it to a 2007-era Macbook (running the exact same version of the OS, however), Disk Utility worked just fine.  I was able to format the disk, partition it (for a Recovery partition) and then use Carbon Copy Cloner back in the Macbook Pro to clone over my existing hard drive. 

So if anyone else out there runs into this problem, find yourself an old Macbook?  Not a great solution, but it’s out there.