Partitioning an "external" HD?

Posts: 134 · Sub-Modder Joined: 03 Jun 2004 Posts: 134

I recently got my 2.5" hdd enclosure, I pop in one of my old 2 gb laptop hdd, I install all the drivers for the enclosure and plug the enclosure into my computer. The computer sees the drive, but when I double click, it asks me to insert a disk. I try to format it, but same error. Partition magic won't recognize the drive.

I suspect the problem is that the hdd came from a win98 machine, so it isn't fat32 parititioned, and I want to somehow paritition it to fat32 so that I can use it.

Any ideas?

Posts: 399 · Modder Joined: 15 Sep 2004 Posts: 399

Is the enclosure USB or Firewire? If so, there probably isn't any reason to install drivers, windows should just pick up on it.

I'll assume your using Windows XP.

Go Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management (Have to be in Classic View in Control Panel)

You should then see your drive in there, then you can Format, Partition, etc.

Posts: 3258 · Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 10:14 am Post subject:

yes, Disk Management is a very underused, under-appreciated tool in Windows. It will also let you set up software RAID-0 and RAID-1. The other thing I should probably mention. FAT32 might not be the best option for you. The FAT file system has a limit of 4gb for file size. aka, no really big files... NTFS might be a good idea if your going to be using windows. If you plan on dual booting, then id use FAT (both OSs can read/write to FAT easily)...

Posts: 134 · Sub-Modder Joined: 03 Jun 2004 Posts: 134

Posts: 399 · Modder Joined: 15 Sep 2004 Posts: 399

Got me stumped.

Only thing I can really suggest is make sure that the hardrive is properly connected inside the enclosure.

Posts: 3258 · Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 7:18 pm Post subject:

hmmm, yeah, thats odd..
Make sure the IDE ribbon is connected correctly...
Try it on a different machine? Try a different HD inside it?

Posts: 3258 · Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 7:19 pm Post subject:

What about possibly putting it in a machine, partitioning it, then throwing it in an enclosure?
Just ideas...

Posts: 134 · Sub-Modder Joined: 03 Jun 2004 Posts: 134

I spent all day today doing what Impact suggested to no avail. Then about 5 mintues ago, I notice this little black piece near the pins. The jumper. It's always the jumper. Everything works all happy now, a 1mmx1mmx1mm piece of plastic cost me 3 days. GG.

Now onto another question, does anybody know how to unscrew a hard drive? Not remove a hard drive, but take apart a hard drive, I just got this old drive that has something rattling inside and I want to see what it is. The screws look like the star of david (not being racist, that's the only thing it actually resembles). I've tried all of my tools, but they either don't fit or are too big to do anything.

Posts: 3258 · Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 7:33 pm Post subject:

I've taken them apart before, the Jewish Star type screws your referring to are on almost all hard drives (and also inside iPods odly enough). You would have to get a screw driver called a T-#. The screws in ipods use a T-5 screw driver (dont ask what the T stands for). I suggest you go to Sears. Talk to Everon, they had a good screwdriver i grabbed, like 12 tips, that all swap into one handle thing (T-4 to T-10, and then phillips and flathead) for like 10$, Best screwdriver I ever bought....

If you take it apart, make sure to do it inside a plastic bag or something, HD's are made in clean-rooms, so any little piece of dust that gets in there will likely ruin the drive. Also check out our "Whats inside a Hard Drive" article....