Format new USB hard drive?

[Louise]

I just purchased an ATA Hitachi hard drive and have placed it in a usb
2.0 enclosure. Running Win XP Pro.

It seems to be working and it is recognized as a usb hard drive in
device manager without any red or yellow warnings - all seems fine.

However, it is not recognized with a drive letter in my computer, or in
windows explorer. So, it isn't assigned a drive letter and it isn't
available.

I know I have to format it, but how do I do that when it doesn't come up
with a drive letter?

TIA

Louise

 

[Rod Speed]

I just purchased an ATA Hitachi hard drive and have
placed it in a usb 2.0 enclosure. Running Win XP Pro.

It seems to be working and it is recognized as a usb hard drive in
device manager without any red or yellow warnings - all seems fine.

However, it is not recognized with a drive letter in my computer, or in
windows explorer. So, it isn't assigned a drive letter and it isn't
available.

I know I have to format it, but how do I do that
when it doesn't come up with a drive letter?

You do it in Disk Management.

Control Panel/Performance and Maintenance/Admin Tools/Computer Management
Storage/Disk Management in the left window.
Select the usb drive, partition and format it.

 

[Irwin]

First, read the instructions carefully and see if it was shipped
formatted. Read further and make sure you do not have to set the drive
as removable in properties. I did for my drive before it would give me
a drive letter.

Then, right click on My computer, click manage, choose disk management,
right click on the partition, and see if it will let you format it. Be
sure you don't format the wrong thing.

Good luck

 

[Louise]

First, read the instructions carefully and see if it was shipped
formatted. Read further and make sure you do not have to set the drive
as removable in properties. I did for my drive before it would give me
a drive letter.

Then, right click on My computer, click manage, choose disk management,
right click on the partition, and see if it will let you format it. Be
sure you don't format the wrong thing.

Good luck

Thanks everyone - that did it. The drive is now formatting and I still
have my C drive intact

Louise