How to set up a portable hard drive ??

[Runfox]

Any one got some info on how to set up a portable hard drive. I bought a new HITACHI Deskstar P7K500 HDP725025GLAT80 (00A35390) 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA133 3.5" Hard Drive -Bare Drive, and BYTECC ME-835U2F Aluminum 3.5" Silver USB & 1394 External Enclosure from newegg. I formatted the drive. I searched the forums but cant find exactly how to initialize this drive to be USB. Windows still dose not recognize it. I think i have to set the drive jumpers to "Master". But what else ddo I need to do?

Weblog Archive: Build your own portable external hard drive

Found this link , seams strange to have to partition with "Diskpart" through CMD prompt. Any help would be great, I'll figure it out sooner or later.

 

[carnageX]

You should set the jiumpers to Cable Select. When its in the enclosure and you ahve it plugged it and you're booted to Windows, does it just not show up in My Computer? If not, do this:

Start > right cilck My Computer (or Computer for Vista) > manage... > on the right-side pane, click Disk management > find the disk drive in the bottom half of the window on the right side. Is partitioned/formatted there? is it assigned a drive letter? Is it initialized?

 

[Runfox]

carnageX , yeah I right clicked My Computer and ran the disk manager tool, found the drive, and formatted it, gave it a drive letter, I think it is innitialized. I think the last thing I'm needing is to get the jumper settings right. I read most should be set to master, you say cable select, Ill have to try that, I think thats what I'm missing..

My enclosure also came with a disk with some install files, I read the readme and it basicly said if the device needs a files it will choose the one needed. I guess thats when windows sees new hardware, and I use the wizard to install it. I'm wondeing if I need that to use it as a USB device?

 

[Runfox]

Not having any luck with this protable HD

I have HD jumpers set to cable select, comp see's new hardware. I tried to set partition's through CMD diskpart , got msg diskpart was unable to create the specified partition
Went into Disk manager, it sees the hard drive, tried to format , format failed.
Deleted partiton, trying again
New partition wizard, create primary partition, create partition size, max size, assign drive letter Z, format partition with settings, NTFS files system, finish, formatting , not quick format.

 

[carnageX]

Try booting off of GParted and formatting it the GParted LiveCD.

 

[Runfox]

Try booting off of GParted and formatting it the GParted LiveCD.

I'm not finding a good download for GParted. I downloaded the ZIP file but don't see any executable. or install files.

 

[carnageX]

It's a LiveCD. You'll have to burn the ISO do a disc (or make a flashdrive bootable) and boot off of it. GParted -- Live CD/USB/PXE/HD

 

[Runfox]

When I first got the HD, I hooked it up to my computer, It saw it in the BIOS, windows found new hardware, I went to Disk manager, sw the drive, partitioned it, formatted it, all good.So I know the HD is good. I shut down my comp, took out the HD, put in the portable case, plug it in USB port, windows saw new hardware, but that's all. I went back to disk management, tried to partition format , nothing. Now windows does not even see anything when I plug it in USB, .

The case power light comes on, the fan light comes on, the HD light comes on for a sec, I feel the HD spin a sec, but thats it.

Is the case bad? I know the HD is good. I'm thinking tomorrow I'll try and call BYTECC and see if I can figure if the case is bad or what.

 

[carnageX]

Yeah, I'm thinking that the enclosure could be bad. I have an OKGear enclosure that crapped out on me and when I put a drive in it, it is no longer recognized in Windows and gives me an error in Disk management.

 

[Runfox]

OK Carnagex, I RMA the BYTECC external enclosure back to New Egg. I tried to call that company but no one answers the phone, so I'm not interested in any product I cant even communicate with the manufacture.
I ordered Rosewill RX35-AT-IU SLV Aluminum 3.5" Silver USB 2.0 External Enclosure

So let me make sure I understand how this is supposed to work. I have already partitioned and formatted my HD with Disk management . So when I get this case, I should install the HD, and I believe set it to Master as it is the only drive, when I power it up, plug into USB port, windows should give me the little tone, Ding, found new hardware, install, now I see my Z drive in My computer. Did I miss anything?