How to format an external USB 2 HD

[Jungle Jim]

This problem has been hashed over many times, but not exactly my
circumstance.

I have a USB 2 external enclosure in which I have put a hard drive.
This is a 1.2 Gb WD AC31200F dusk. It was working fine, but had
sensitive data on it and the client asked that it be re-formatted or
otherwise wiped clean before I used the drive with another client.
Did so, but as I am in the senior era, I don't remember what method
was used - it may even have bee low-level fromatted for all I know.

I can plig the drive into a USB 2 port - (verified all things with USB
2). Windows sees it , it is displayed in the Device manager both in
the DISK DRIVE section exactly as the WD name mentioned above, but
with USB tacked to end of name and in the USB section as a mass
storage device. All properties in Device Mgr say the drive is working
properly. If I open thew Safely Remove Hardware, I see the drive
described as USB Mass storage device, and under it the exact
description of the HD.

I then open MY Computer, but no drive - OK that's because it is not
properly partitioned and formatted. So I rt click on My Computer >
Manage> Disk management. I see 3 HD's - 2 IDE and one Sata. In the
lower of the 2 right side window panes, I see all my disk drives, but
NO USB2 external drive. SO how do I partition and format it ?

I know that I can tkake the drive out, hook it to the diagnostic
system, and do it all there, then remount it, but I will not always
have qa facility as the disgnostic system available, so I need to find
out what is wrong with this picture. I do know I can format a new
drive in XP,, as I did so when I installed my SATA drive.

Can someone shed some light on this problem ?

 

[Rich Barry]

Why don't you use one of your IDE channels ( motherboard connectors
Secondary and Primary ) temporarily and format
from there. Then move it to the USB enclosure.

 

[Jungle Jim]

Why don't you use one of your IDE channels ( motherboard
connectors
Secondary and Primary ) temporarily and format
from there. Then move it to the USB enclosure.

I mentioned I culd do that using another system, but that doesn't
solve the problem - it only gets around it. The other reason is that
I have to use the system to earn a living - I can't be tearing down
and re-building it for the sake of work-around. My system is a tool
not a toy.

Thabks anyway for your input - I can always use others' perspective.

 

[Lem]

See
http://www.ntcompatible.com/usb_external_hard_drive_western_digital__t26938.html

"I had the same problem with an external drive. It was there on devices
but wasn't recognised in explorer. My soltuion was to run diskmgmt.msc at
the run command. You can then see your drive. In my case the drive was
descibed at "dynamic". I changed that to "basic" under action. I then
clicked the body of the window which contains the drive info, then right
click and either format or pertition, choose a letter for your drive and
you're away."

 

[Andy]

Who makes the enclosure? What ATA to USB chip does it use? Does it
work with other drives?

 

[Jungle Jim]

Who makes the enclosure? What ATA to USB chip does it use? Does it
work with other drives?

It does in fact work with other drives - also WD one is a WDC 80mb and
the other one used was a WDC 120mb. Both these drives are currently
installed in my system. I bought the enclosure back in February when
my system died. I thought it was the mobo, so I bought the enclosure,
and checked each drive by connecting it to my laptop. Both were OK
and no data lost - the system problem was the power supply. I
replaced the PS, re-connected the drives, added an 80 mb SATA, and
went on from here - so I do know the enclosure works.

One thing I failed to mention is that the same thing occurs on my
friend;s desktop, laptop, and my laptop.
And yes all are XP Home and Pro all w/SP2.