Unable to format USB 2.0 120GB external HDD in XP

[Guest]

There are ALOT of posts about this, and seemingly NO answers!

I have Windows XP SP1 - so, I have all the USB 2.0 drivers.

I have accessed Disk Management and Create Partition seems to be successful - but it fails to format the disk ("Windows was unable to format hard disk" or something).

I can unplug the external hard disk from this PC, and simply plug into my latop (Windows 2000) - and hey presto, I can format the disk (120GB, NTFS).

.....I then plug back into my XP desktop, everything looks OK, until I try to copy stuff to it, surprise surprise, files are corrupt. So I restart my PC, try again... and XP reckons this hard disk is not formatted!! Again, it's unable to format.

Whipped my screwdrivers out, and took hard disk out of enclosure and installed it INTERNALLY in my XP desktop - formatted fine, and everything works!

- so does anyone know what the problem is with XP and external USB hard disks?! Any answers Microsoft? Are you reading any of these posts? I've gone through all the posts here, all the knowledge base and nothing found.

Many Thanks,
Doug.

 

[Crusty \(-: Old B@stard :-\)]

USB cable? The USB port you are connected to?

I have seen both of these conditions cause the problems you are having. I
have a scanner that will NOT work when plugged into any of the native USB
2.0 ports, but works just fine when plugged into an Adaptec USB 2.0 card.

The native ports were not supplying enough power to run the scanner.

There are ALOT of posts about this, and seemingly NO answers!

I have Windows XP SP1 - so, I have all the USB 2.0 drivers.

I have accessed Disk Management and Create Partition seems to be

successful - but it fails to format the disk ("Windows was unable to format
hard disk" or something).

I can unplug the external hard disk from this PC, and simply plug into my

latop (Windows 2000) - and hey presto, I can format the disk (120GB, NTFS).

...I then plug back into my XP desktop, everything looks OK, until I try

to copy stuff to it, surprise surprise, files are corrupt. So I restart my
PC, try again... and XP reckons this hard disk is not formatted!! Again,
it's unable to format.

Whipped my screwdrivers out, and took hard disk out of enclosure and

installed it INTERNALLY in my XP desktop - formatted fine, and everything
works!

- so does anyone know what the problem is with XP and external USB hard

disks?! Any answers Microsoft? Are you reading any of these posts? I've gone
through all the posts here, all the knowledge base and nothing found.

 

[Guest]

Crusty - thanks, close but no cigar. External USB HDD has its own power supply...

Anyone got any other possible hints/tips? It's not as if XP can't read the hard disk, the fact is, then when it does, it seems to f*#k the hard disk... what's happening?

Is it a USB 2.0 driver problem in Windows XP? Maybe the USB cable I have can't handle USB 2.0 "traffic" (sounds like rubbish, but you never know). Works fine on my laptop (Windows 2000, USB 1.1).

 

[Guest]

Hi

Hi

I use an external harddisk with USB 2.0 connection without any problem
May be the problem is on the external Harddisk rack?
I mean the USB port on the ext. HDD rack is USB1.1 instead of USB2.0 and USB1.1 device cannot work on USB2.0 hub
As you said, it can work on the laptop using USB1.1, have you try it on other PC using USB2.0
Or the problem is on the USB 2.0 hub of your PC

Pete


----- Doug Turner wrote: ----

Crusty - thanks, close but no cigar. External USB HDD has its own power supply...

Anyone got any other possible hints/tips? It's not as if XP can't read the hard disk, the fact is, then when it does, it seems to f*#k the hard disk... what's happening

Is it a USB 2.0 driver problem in Windows XP? Maybe the USB cable I have can't handle USB 2.0 "traffic" (sounds like rubbish, but you never know). Works fine on my laptop (Windows 2000, USB 1.1).

 

[Guest]

Thanks Peter,

I don't have a USB 2.0 'hub' per se. My Motherboard has 6 USB 2.0 ports (it's quite a posh motherboard y'see). The manufacturer of the enclosure suggested I format as FAT32, but XP won't let me format it as anything other than NTFS (and I can't create smaller partitions to get round this, as I'm dealing with large video files).

I'm giving up on external USB 2.0 HDD, as it's already lost me a lot of data

 

[Andy]

Whose enclosure are you using? I would suggest trying a different one.

 

[Frank]

: There are ALOT of posts about this, and seemingly NO answers!
:
: I have Windows XP SP1 - so, I have all the USB 2.0 drivers.
:
: I have accessed Disk Management and Create Partition seems to be
successful - but it fails to format the disk ("Windows was unable to format
hard disk" or something).
:
: I can unplug the external hard disk from this PC, and simply plug into my
latop (Windows 2000) - and hey presto, I can format the disk (120GB, NTFS).
:
: ...I then plug back into my XP desktop, everything looks OK, until I try
to copy stuff to it, surprise surprise, files are corrupt. So I restart my
PC, try again... and XP reckons this hard disk is not formatted!! Again,
it's unable to format.
:
: Whipped my screwdrivers out, and took hard disk out of enclosure and
installed it INTERNALLY in my XP desktop - formatted fine, and everything
works!
:
: - so does anyone know what the problem is with XP and external USB hard
disks?! Any answers Microsoft? Are you reading any of these posts? I've gone
through all the posts here, all the knowledge base and nothing found.
:
: Many Thanks,
: Doug.

From what you have written above everything points to a malfunctioning
enclosure or
USB port. You did say it worked on a W2K boxen than I would try something
else
in the USB port to see if it works. Most of these enclosures will work no
matter if
they are 1.1 or 2.0.