single NTFS partition vs multiple NTFS partitions?

[Richard Mincher]

I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 w/Cardbus USB 2.0 card running XP Pro SP2.
I just bought an external USB HD enclosure (tray based) and have a
single WDC 250GB drive in it.

If I try to format it as a single NTFS partition with various
manufacturers packages it says it succeeds however XP sees it as an
unformatted disk (RAW). When XP asks to format it, it says it can't.

If I partition / format it as a ~1GB partition (FAT or NFTS) and ~249GB
partition (NTFS) it succeeds and XP has no problems seeing the two NTFS
volumes.

It seems that any combination (125GB/125GB, 50GB/200GB, etc.) works as
long as it's multiple partitions.

How can I format it as a single NTFS partition and get XP to recognize
it? Is this a partition map problem?

Thanks,
Dick

 

[wayne]

I would check as to how you have the drive installed in the enclosure. Do
you have it a master/slave or cable select. Whichever way you have it try
the other. make sure you have the BIOS at the latest version.

how does disk manager see the drive?
have you tried the WD tools for XP they have on their web site?
Have you tried putting the drive in a desktop pc and formatting the drive
there?

Wayne