Initializing drive in USB enclosure

[Andrew Robinson <awrobinson@xxxxxxx>]

I have recently acquired a Western Digital EIDE 80 GB hard drive. 
Separately, I acquired an external USB enclosure. I would like to get 
the hard drive working in the enclosure to provide myself with some 
portable disk space.

First question: is it possible to initialize a hard drive in an USB 
external enclosure? I haven't figured out how to do so from either Linux 
or Windows. My suspicion is that I will have to mount the hard drive in 
the computer case, initialize it, then remove it and mount it in the 
external enclosure.

Second question: if it is possible to initialize a hard drive in an USB 
enclosure, how to I go about doing so? If anyone has any pointers to 
appropriate How-To's, I'd be very appreciative.

Thanks!

Andrew Robinson