2.5" Int HDD in External Enclosure via USB

[Teflon]

Got a 160GB Seagate 2.5" Internal Notebook Ultra ATA/100 HDD, 5400 RPM
with 8MB Cache and mounted it in a CompUSA 2.5" enclosure. Intended
to create an image of XP PRO on this new drive and install it as the
new internal HDD in an R51 Thinkpad.

Plugged the enclosure in (it uses two USB slots - 1 provides power)
and booted XP Pro. Since its a new unformatted drive, I did not
expect to see it in My Computer or Win Explorer. I wasn't
disappointed, it wasn't there. Wasn't shown in Device Manager either.

Following the enclosure's install instructions for formatting the
drive under XP, I right clicked My Computer, selected Manage and got
the Computer Management Screen. Selected Disk Management and there it
was as Drive 1. (The existing internal HDD was Drive 0). Both were
shown as Healthy, with a notation for the new drive 'Healthy [EISA
Configuration]'. When I right clicked on that drive's Status screen
(as instructed), the 'New Partition' option in the pop-up window was
grayed out. With that, my formatting effort came to a screeching
halt.

Called Seagate for some guidance and was told Seagate does not support
using internal drives in external enclosures. Tried CompUSA tech
support, but no response. Suspect they are all busy packing up.

OK, so here I am. What is preventing me from formatting this drive?
A BIOS setting perhaps? How do I proceed? If this is old hat, point
me at something to read.

Speaking of settings, are there 'jumpers' on a 2.5" notebook internal
HDD? If so, does one have to reset these 'jumpers' when the drive is
being used in an external enclosure? If so, where does one find and
how does one set these jumpers?

Thanks in advance for any guidance provided.

A last question (for now), which may need to be asked elsewhere, if
this drive is formatted in FAT32, would I be able to connect this
drive to a Win98SE system via the USB and see / use it?

 

[Jerry]

Not really an answer to your overall problem but under WinXP you cannnot
make a FAT32 drive larger than 32Gb so if you finally get things to work
that 160Gb drive would have to be partitioned.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Got a 160GB Seagate 2.5" Internal Notebook Ultra ATA/100 HDD, 5400 RPM
with 8MB Cache and mounted it in a CompUSA 2.5" enclosure. Intended
to create an image of XP PRO on this new drive and install it as the
new internal HDD in an R51 Thinkpad.

Plugged the enclosure in (it uses two USB slots - 1 provides power)
and booted XP Pro. Since its a new unformatted drive, I did not
expect to see it in My Computer or Win Explorer. I wasn't
disappointed, it wasn't there. Wasn't shown in Device Manager either.

Following the enclosure's install instructions for formatting the
drive under XP, I right clicked My Computer, selected Manage and got
the Computer Management Screen. Selected Disk Management and there it
was as Drive 1. (The existing internal HDD was Drive 0). Both were
shown as Healthy, with a notation for the new drive 'Healthy [EISA
Configuration]'. When I right clicked on that drive's Status screen
(as instructed), the 'New Partition' option in the pop-up window was
grayed out. With that, my formatting effort came to a screeching
halt.

When connecting the drive, you should get the "disk initialisation wizard".
Disconnect it and try again.

Called Seagate for some guidance and was told Seagate does not support
using internal drives in external enclosures. Tried CompUSA tech
support, but no response. Suspect they are all busy packing up.

OK, so here I am. What is preventing me from formatting this drive?
A BIOS setting perhaps? How do I proceed? If this is old hat, point
me at something to read.

Try doing a cold restart. I use the method you are describing regularly
and it does work.

There may not be enough power getting to the drive. You might try using a
powered hub as one of the USB attachment points.

Speaking of settings, are there 'jumpers' on a 2.5" notebook internal
HDD?

No, there are not.

If so, does one have to reset these 'jumpers' when the drive is
being used in an external enclosure? If so, where does one find and
how does one set these jumpers?

Thanks in advance for any guidance provided.



A last question (for now), which may need to be asked elsewhere, if
this drive is formatted in FAT32, would I be able to connect this
drive to a Win98SE system via the USB and see / use it?

If you need to use this on a Win9x system, yes you must format to FAT32,
though you may need to use a 3rd party tool to do so - at least during
installs, WinXP will not format drives over somewhere above 40 gig as FATx.
You will also need to install the driver disk that came with the enclosure.

HTH
-pk

 

[Anna]

Got a 160GB Seagate 2.5" Internal Notebook Ultra ATA/100 HDD, 5400 RPM
with 8MB Cache and mounted it in a CompUSA 2.5" enclosure. Intended
to create an image of XP PRO on this new drive and install it as the
new internal HDD in an R51 Thinkpad.

Plugged the enclosure in (it uses two USB slots - 1 provides power)
and booted XP Pro. Since its a new unformatted drive, I did not
expect to see it in My Computer or Win Explorer. I wasn't
disappointed, it wasn't there. Wasn't shown in Device Manager either.

Following the enclosure's install instructions for formatting the
drive under XP, I right clicked My Computer, selected Manage and got
the Computer Management Screen. Selected Disk Management and there it
was as Drive 1. (The existing internal HDD was Drive 0). Both were
shown as Healthy, with a notation for the new drive 'Healthy [EISA
Configuration]'. When I right clicked on that drive's Status screen
(as instructed), the 'New Partition' option in the pop-up window was
grayed out. With that, my formatting effort came to a screeching
halt.

Called Seagate for some guidance and was told Seagate does not support
using internal drives in external enclosures. Tried CompUSA tech
support, but no response. Suspect they are all busy packing up.

OK, so here I am. What is preventing me from formatting this drive?
A BIOS setting perhaps? How do I proceed? If this is old hat, point
me at something to read.

Speaking of settings, are there 'jumpers' on a 2.5" notebook internal
HDD? If so, does one have to reset these 'jumpers' when the drive is
being used in an external enclosure? If so, where does one find and
how does one set these jumpers?

Thanks in advance for any guidance provided.

A last question (for now), which may need to be asked elsewhere, if
this drive is formatted in FAT32, would I be able to connect this
drive to a Win98SE system via the USB and see / use it?

Teflon:
There are really a number of unrelated issues raised by your query...

1. First of all - and before we get to the precise problem you're having -
you say your objective is to install the new HDD as the boot drive in your
Lenovo notebook. And you expect to accomplish this by creating an "image" of
the XP OS onto that HDD.

Are you really intending to create a "disk image" onto that 160 GB HDD or do
you really mean that you intend to "clone" the contents of your notebook's
present boot drive to your new HDD using a disk cloning program? That's what
you really mean, don't you?

Because if it's a disk image that you'll be creating, that won't
automatically create a bootable HDD when you install it in your notebook. I
assume you understand that.

2. Continuing along those same lines, if you are intending to create a disk
clone of the new HDD (your present laptop's internal HDD being the "source"
drive), there is no need to partition/format the new HDD, unless of course,
you want a new partitioning scheme on the new HDD. And even that can be
accomplished through some (but not all) disk-cloning programs directly
during the disk-cloning process without the need to "pre-partition" the
"destination" disk.

3. Anyway, if for one reason or another, you're bent of
partitioning/formatting your new HDD while it's encased in a USB enclosure,
ensure that you've connected its USB cable with *both* of the dual-head USB
connectors connected to two of your USB ports. Connecting the cable to only
one USB port might not provide sufficient power for the external HDD.

If still a problem, try connecting the device before powering up the PC and
if that doesn't work then try powering up the device after the system has
booted.

4. There are no jumpers on your 2 1/2" PATA HDD.

5. Finally, your query re formatting the disk FAT32. Is this some fallback
position in case you retain the HDD in its enclosure and use it as some sort
of backup/storage device in a Win9x/Me environment? If "yes", then you could
so format it FAT32 using a DOS boot floppy disk (Win9x/Me "Startup" disk)
but we ordinarily suggest not to create partitions > 120 GB in a FAT32
environment.

On the other hand, you could format it FAT32 using XP's Disk Management
utility but FAT32 partitions would be limited to < 32 GB.
Anna

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Not really an answer to your overall problem but under WinXP you cannnot
make a FAT32 drive larger than 32Gb so if you finally get things to work
that 160Gb drive would have to be partitioned.

Sorry, this is *not* correct. It is true that Windows XP will not let
you *create * a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB, however it will
happily let you use one if you first create the partition with other
software.

 

[AJR]

Rather common problem with notebook drives in external enclosures - a major
cause is "cabling" conversion. Check pin alignment (number of pins) on
enclosure versus the drive.

 

[M.I.5¾]

Got a 160GB Seagate 2.5" Internal Notebook Ultra ATA/100 HDD, 5400 RPM
with 8MB Cache and mounted it in a CompUSA 2.5" enclosure. Intended
to create an image of XP PRO on this new drive and install it as the
new internal HDD in an R51 Thinkpad.

Plugged the enclosure in (it uses two USB slots - 1 provides power)
and booted XP Pro. Since its a new unformatted drive, I did not
expect to see it in My Computer or Win Explorer. I wasn't
disappointed, it wasn't there. Wasn't shown in Device Manager either.

Following the enclosure's install instructions for formatting the
drive under XP, I right clicked My Computer, selected Manage and got
the Computer Management Screen. Selected Disk Management and there it
was as Drive 1. (The existing internal HDD was Drive 0). Both were
shown as Healthy, with a notation for the new drive 'Healthy [EISA
Configuration]'. When I right clicked on that drive's Status screen
(as instructed), the 'New Partition' option in the pop-up window was
grayed out. With that, my formatting effort came to a screeching
halt.

When connecting the drive, you should get the "disk initialisation
wizard". Disconnect it and try again.

And if you don't, right click the drive from the management screen and
select 'Initialise'. You should then be able to partition and format.

Try doing a cold restart. I use the method you are describing regularly
and it does work.

There may not be enough power getting to the drive. You might try using a
powered hub as one of the USB attachment points.


No, there are not.


If you need to use this on a Win9x system, yes you must format to FAT32,
though you may need to use a 3rd party tool to do so - at least during
installs, WinXP will not format drives over somewhere above 40 gig as
FATx. You will also need to install the driver disk that came with the
enclosure.

That should not be necessary under Windows XP.

 

[FrankFL]

Got a 160GB Seagate 2.5" Internal Notebook Ultra ATA/100 HDD, 5400 RPM
with 8MB Cache and mounted it in a CompUSA 2.5" enclosure. Intended
to create an image of XP PRO on this new drive and install it as the
new internal HDD in an R51 Thinkpad.

Plugged the enclosure in (it uses two USB slots - 1 provides power)
and booted XP Pro. Since its a new unformatted drive, I did not
expect to see it in My Computer or Win Explorer. I wasn't
disappointed, it wasn't there. Wasn't shown in Device Manager either.

Following the enclosure's install instructions for formatting the
drive under XP, I right clicked My Computer, selected Manage and got
the Computer Management Screen. Selected Disk Management and there it
was as Drive 1. (The existing internal HDD was Drive 0). Both were
shown as Healthy, with a notation for the new drive 'Healthy [EISA
Configuration]'. When I right clicked on that drive's Status screen
(as instructed), the 'New Partition' option in the pop-up window was
grayed out. With that, my formatting effort came to a screeching
halt.

Called Seagate for some guidance and was told Seagate does not support
using internal drives in external enclosures. Tried CompUSA tech
support, but no response. Suspect they are all busy packing up.

OK, so here I am. What is preventing me from formatting this drive?
A BIOS setting perhaps? How do I proceed? If this is old hat, point
me at something to read.

Speaking of settings, are there 'jumpers' on a 2.5" notebook internal
HDD? If so, does one have to reset these 'jumpers' when the drive is
being used in an external enclosure? If so, where does one find and
how does one set these jumpers?

Thanks in advance for any guidance provided.

A last question (for now), which may need to be asked elsewhere, if
this drive is formatted in FAT32, would I be able to connect this
drive to a Win98SE system via the USB and see / use it?

FWIW
I have the same PATA with the CompUSA enclosure setup. Out of the
last five laptops it would not work with two of them. I did not waste my
time trying to figure out why. I think that it had something to do with power.

FYI
Western Digital has a FAT formatter that will work on other USB drives that I
used it on.