USB 2.0 Drive Not Working Properly Under Windows 2000

[CHANGE USERNAME TO westes]

I am having all kinds of problems with USB 2.0 hard drives on my Windows
2000 system. I created the volume with an NTFS volume that is 160 GB in
size. I can see the volume and work with it, but...

1) After some use, the drive cannot be CHKDSKd. Windows says it cannot open
the volume for
"direct access".

2) Whenever I do backups to the device, I start to get all kinds of messages
about not being able to write to the volume. I wanted to turn off "Write
Caching" for the device, but when I got to hardware properties for the
drive, the delayed write checkbox is disabled entirely. Is there a way I
could turn off write caching using the registry directly?

3) I cannot add the USB 2.0 to a mirror under Computer Manager.

Is there any way to correct these issues for a USB 2.0 hard drive under
Windows 2000?

 

[Alexander Grigoriev]

Does the drive enclosure spec explicitly state that it supports drives over
137 GB?

 

[CHANGE USERNAME TO westes]

It was a generic case, and I don't remember any words regarding this on the
retail packaging or instructions.

I gather the workaround for this limitation is to format a volume that is
137 GB or less? Will such cases support multiple drives, as long as no one
drive is more than 137 GB?

What is the issue that causes this limitation?

 

[Alexander Grigoriev]

USB2->ATA translation chipset with its firmware needs to understand BigATA,
to properly work with drives larger than 137 GB. If it does not, anything is
possible, including overwrite of the drive beginning, when the data rolls
over 137 GB. I think you've experienced this.