Question : Problem: USB Hard Drive enclosure - creating partition.

I have an external hard drive exposure for a 2.5" drive.  It used to be two partitions.  I deleted them both and disconnected the drive.  When I tried to connect it later to create a new single partition the drive went missing.  Disk Manager just doesn't see it anymore.

Since it is a 2.5" drive I can't just hook it up to an IDE cable.  Can XP just not see an external drive with no partitions?  I have a mac too.  If anyone knows how I can make either of these machines see this drive, I'd be very happy.

Thanks.

Answer : Problem: USB Hard Drive enclosure - creating partition.

You might have another problem, maybe the USB port is bad, delivers not enough power etc. Have you tried using a powered USB HUB between the PC and Drive?

Also connect it to another PC and check if it works.

If neither of the above works, get Knoppix, boot the CD and try partitioning the drive that way.

http://knoppix.net

When booted (have the drive connected before starting), you should see the USB drive on the desktop. If that is the case, open a terminal windows (the icon that looks like a PC Monitor), enter

sudo root

Now enter a password twice

Then enter

su

Now you should have root access. enter

fdisk /dev/sdx

(The sdx you should substitute with what the disk is listed as on your desktop). Using fdisk you can now partition the HD. "m" will show you a list of commands.