Uhm... Maybe when you write on the HD, Windows is able to cache almost the entire file; if so, while it seems it have finished copy, there's still data trasmitted to the HD for some times.
Are you sure you are using a proper USB Hi-Speed cable? A non compliant cable will cause a lot of retries /...
You souldn't need to format / repartition the HD; the XP setup procedure is fully able to do it for you.
But, if it say "no harddisk found", it mean exactly that; it probably don't recognize the particular HD-controlled your laptop use.
A specific driver is needed, for when the setup procedure...
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