My system:
XP Home w/service pack 2
1gig ram
DFI Infinity II motherboard with USB 2.0

I got a good deal on a brand new Seagate 160gig harddrive ($25) and attached it to my computer as a USB mass storage device using a USB to ATA (PCI?) adapter which has its own power supply connection.

2 Questions:

(1) When I try to format the drive with the administrative tools it goes thru the whole format process and then at the end I get the message "Windows is unable to format" or something similar.

The drive shows up as healthy with a 149gig partition in admin tools, and when I click on the drive icon in "My computer" I get the message that the drive is unformatted and asks to format.

Seems this should work. Maybe missing some key update or software. I scoured the internet for solutions but have been unable to find any.

(2) Right now the drive is just sitting on my desk next to the monitor. Do I need any heat disipation or dust containment?

Thanks in advance for any help.

On the desktop, rightclick on My Computer, select Manage, then under Storage select either Disk Management or Removable Storage, wherever that USB-drive is visible.
Rightclick that drive. You need to PARTITION that drive first, before you can FORMAT it.
The options for that should be visible on the popup.

I did this. I even tried partitioning into 2 half-sized partitions, but this did not work either.

Disconnect all devices on IDE 2...remove the drive from the enclosure and hook it up on IDE2 by itself, re-boot and follow RBS's instructions.
Then re-install it to the USB enclosure.

patio.

That sounds like it should work. I will try it.

Can anyone respond to my second question?

As far as heat and dust i don't leave drives out of the machine too long...but it shouldn't do any harm. I keep mine raised on a small wood block if it's going to be out more than a day or so...raising it a little promotes some airflow.

patio.

HDD format via USB

Hello!

I hope im not too late to help you!
I also had this same problem.
a customer bought a laptop hdd and installed
it in an external case. he came back and said that it did not work.
I tried partitioning and formatting it but just before completing the format
it showed a message that it could not complete the format.

However the solution was....
I connected the laptop HDD into a laptop, booted from my bootdisk
and used fdisk to partion it and formated it.
USB seems to be unable to write bootsectors or FAT's.

So all you should do is...
pop your HDD into your pc (not on the usb)
boot from a bootdisk
partition using fdisk
format the bastard!

Hope this helps...

Patio's advice worked. Thanks anyway.