How format an external hard drive in Vista?

I am trying to use the hard drive from an earlier laptop running XP as an
external storage deive for my new laptop which runs Vista. I have tried to
format the old drive as an external USB-connected hard drive in Vista using
Disk Management. I get the follwing error message: "The operation failed to
complete because the Disk Management console view is not up-to-date. Refresh
the view by using the refresh task. If the problem persists, close the Disk
Management console, then restart Disk Management or restart the computer."

I have tried all 3 suggestions but continue getting the same error message.
Any suggestions would be welcome.

Does the External Drive show up in My Computer?

If it does, right-click>Format.

You may have stumbled into a bottomless pit here. :>( (And the more I try
to draft this reply, the more confused my typing gets, but maybe you can
wade through it.)

A Google search for "Disk Management console view" turns up mostly copies of
YOUR post, "slurped" from here and reposted on various "expert" tech sites.
For example, here is the first hit:
http://www.tabletquestions.com/windo...ive-vista.html

In WinXP's Disk Management, the Help file was very informative, but Vista's
is much less so. The information is there, but it is not always easy to
find. A search for "console view" got many hits for the MMC and its
console. MSDN and TechNet are full of help for the Recovery Console. But
"console view" comes up empty. A search for "refresh" in the Help gives me
only one hit: Press F5. :>(

I assume you've already done the obvious steps: Action | Refresh. Action |
Rescan Disks. Power down, plug in the disk, then power on and watch for
Found new Hardware.

You haven't told us, step by step, just HOW you are hooking up the old
drive. Is the old drive IDE? SATA? How are you interfacing it to USB?
Does it appear at all in DM? How about in Device Manager? I've never had a
laptop, so I don't know what special considerations there may be in managing
a laptop drive.

DM's Help does have one page on "Move Disks to Another Computer". I assume
you've read this and followed the instructions. The main part says this:

"Install disks in the new computer
"If the disks are external, plug them into the computer. If the disks are
internal, make sure the computer is turned off and then physically install
the disks in that computer.

"Start the computer that contains the disks you moved and follow the
instructions on the Found New Hardware dialog box."

That page has instructions for how to Initialize a disk, but I can't follow
them because I don't have any uninitialized disks so when I right-click on a
disk the advertised "Initialize Disk" doesn't appear. Does it appear for
your missing disk? Does your missing disk appear at all in DM?

I hope someone else has some ideas, because I'm running out.

The WinXP mindset is hard to shake, isn't it? ;^}

In Vista, "My Computer" does not exist, not even as a Junction pointing to
"Computer".

I'm not exactly what you call an Expert, but did you use the disk management
console in the snap in console?

type in the search box compmgmt.msc
hit enter
go to storage in the snap in
go to disk management "local"
and from here you should be able to load disks/reformat/defragment

if not you may need to update your hardware for the disk by installing
drivers through the "install new hardware" dialogue, or by going to the
manufacturers site.

Did you check to see if it's vista compatible?

[Dchosen]

Thanks Tim: I ran into the same problem over 2 years after your post. It worked beautifully!

[Liviu]

THKS too!
it works :-)