::Resolved::
I was used to my 4th gen modchip that could format drives and do all those goodies. With the older cheaper chips you have to do the formatting of the drive manually.
To do it get EvoX with dummy file from the usual places under
dashboards, evox, unofficial.
after burning and booting this cd you need to FTP in using FlashFXP and then follow the directions from
http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/hdd-ftp.phpgood luck!