I have a Seagate 250 gig IDE hard drive mounted in an AEN-U35W USB 2.0 enclosure box.

I moved the jumper on the hard drive so that it is master.

I have two computers, one running linux (Fedora Core 4, kernal 2.6.11-1) and the other running Windows XP Home Edition, Service Pack 2.

Using linux, I created four partitions on the hard drive. All partitions are FAT32 format. Linux reads and writes it perfectly

WinXP disk management detects all four partitions, but will not allow me to assign drive letters so I can mount them. After I plug in the enclosure, the green light -- indicating USB communication -- goes on for a while, and then goes out. I cannot figure out how to get the hard drive to talk to the computer after the initial detection.

I've played around with partition sizes, thinking that maybe Windows would not mount a USB FAT32 hard drive over 32 gigabytes. That didn't help.

How can I get Windows XP Home Edition to allow me to assign dive letters to the partitions so I can mount them in XP?

Thank you,

Moxieman

Are the partitons all Primary type?
If so then this should be the reason. Windows by default can only see one primary partition at a time. I asume XP is this way. NT was able to see them but still only could mount one at a time from my memory. If this is what you have then you need to create a single primary partition and then make the rest an extended partition from there you can create the 3 addtional partitions in it.

I would think XP would at least see and mount the first primary partition though.

Brian1

Thanks, Brian1.

Yes, all of the partitions are primary, and none of them could be mounted. I will change that to one primary and the rest extended and see if that changes anything.

I was able to delete a partition on the USB harddrive and repartition it using XP, but the problem with XP is that I only have NTFS format as a file system choice, which my Linux box can't read (it's not connected to the internet, so it would be a real pain to get and install the NTFS drivers, besides, FC4 writing to NTFS is, I understand, weak at best).

THanks.

You should be able to format as fat32 or ntfs under XP. Yes writing to NTFS is not perfect. You can trash the partition in millseconds. Any ways just create a primary partiiton then the rest of the space as an extended partition and created the 3 additional logical partitions in the extended partition.

Brian1

Initialize (as a basic, not dynamic) disk and create your partitions in XP, then format the partitions as FAT32 with Linux.

And if the connector in the enclosure was labeled master (as almost all are nowadays, unless SATA of course) then you should have left the jumper on drive in the default cable select position, BTW.

After you have created your partitions under linux (FAT 32 LBA), you have to format them using mkfs as vfat file system type. Windows Xp can only format fat32 partitions under 32 Gb size.

Second, you have to leave your disk in slave mode

Good luck

Well, folks, everything is backed up, and I can take both systems down with me: I'll try all of you suggestions and observations over the next week or so and let you know what works. Thanks.

I will tell you now though, XP does NOT give you the option of creating a disk or partition using FAT of any flavor: NTFS only. If you got an XP system that lets you format in some kind of FAT, let me know where you got it.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in General and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Mod note: Windows questions live in General...

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Tried all permutations of jumper between last post and now, including no jumper. Three times my system could neither detect nor read the USB drive, and only at master could it detect and offer to wipe, create, and format a partition.

At no time did Windows XP offer me a chance to format using anything other than NTFS. Should I try something from the command prompt?

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I am not sure when Windows XP home edition offered me the opportunity to initialize as a basic disk vice a dynamic disk. When would I be given such a choice? Please advise.

Moxieman

PS to moderator -- Thanks for the bump.

Should have been before any partitions were created on it. A wizard even pops up to assist you in the selection. Found this screenshot online:
http://www.informationweek.com/1078/langa03.jhtml

In any case, disk manager should say basic or dynamic right below the drive number. You can also view the drive's properties from the right click context menu and verify the disk type on volumes tab.

Still tearing out my hair.

1. the hard disc and all partitions are BASIC partitions. Windows web site says that XP Home Edition does not support dynamic partitions.

2. took out a second hard drive that I had in the computer (a 6 gigabyte drive (FAT) with Win98 on it that XP recognizes perfectly) and tried the USB harddrive with just the main drive and it. Still no go).

3. Again tried all jumper permutations, including no jumper. Computer just laughed at me.

4. XP Home Edition SP2 recognizes the USB harddisk and all of its partitions (I currently changed partitions to three primary, and on the fourth primary, 4 extended partitions), but will not mount any of them, although it offers to delete any of the partitions. ALL partitions are FAT32 partitions. Three of them are under 32 gigabytes.

5. XP Home Edition SP2 does NOT offer the ability to format a partition as a FAT drive -- only NTFS -- so using Windows to format USB hard disk and using it that way is not an option.

6. Tried formatting and mounting a partition on this USB hard drive as NTFS with 70 gig and downloading files onto it several times. Format/mount was fine. Transfer of files onto the newly created NTFS partitions crapped out at 32 gigabytes, though. There has to be SOME FAT limitation going on!

7. Windows computer is a Sony Vaio RX660. XP Home Edition, SP2, all critical updates. Has no problem with other devices, USB or otherwise. Computer is what, 3 years old? 512 meg RAM.

8. Fedora Core 4 creates and mounts all partitions on this USB harddrive with ease.

Any other ideas?

This is almost certainly due to incompatible drive geometry and can only be fixed by re-initializing the disk in XP. I'd just wipe the drive clean at this point with something like:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc
and start over, this time making sure to follow instructions.

Thanks, Crito.

I've e-mailed the company that makes the enclosure and they can't figure it out either, and suggested that maybe the enclosure is defective. I'll have it tested and see if that makes a difference.

I'll post back in any event.