Win8.1 disk manager having trouble formatting USB drive

Win8.1 seems to have problems with an old Iomega external hard disk. The drive is SATA and the Iomega casing adds a USB connection with one cable for data and the other for extra power if required.

In the past I had totally reformated the Iomega drive and got rid of the DVD ROM emulation partition etc. But trying to repartition or format it with Disk Manager is a nightmare. It has been formatting for an hour so far. I also tried booting from a Linux live CD and that partitioned the drive easy peasy. So why has MS got a problem?

I have found over the years external USB drives to have a large number of problems with communicating to Windows. The drive controller housed within the external enclosure does not last very long, even the newest versions. More often than not I find myself disassembling the hardware to extract the drive itself, which I can then connect directly to IDE or Sata.

If this drive uses USB 1.1 even a quick format could take some time. Luckily things like Linux exist as a way to help alleviate the burden from Windows.

If it had a non standard proprietary format it could take a long time to reformat, especially if its a high capacity drive. For me drive enclosures that rely solely on the USB port(s) for power can be problematic. Especially enclosures with 3.5 inch form factor drives. Although those enclosures usually come with an external power pack.