making filesystem hangs install

[Chris Abbey <cabbey rconnect com>]

Howdy all,

I'm trying to do a hard drive install of RH5. I'm installing
from /dev/sdb1
to /dev/sda5 as /
to /dev/sda7 as swap drive
and
to /dev/sdb5 as /usr

During the "making ext2 filesystem on /dev/sdb5" step the drive
spins for a minute then stops. The progress stops and my machine
just hangs.  /dev/sdb is an iomega Jaz insider, the cartridge in
it is partitioned 50/50, first section (/dev/sdb1) is fat16 and
contains my install image, the second half was created by druid
expressly for the /usr mount. /dev/sda is a 1Gb hard drive and
all the RH5 partions are in the first half. All hardware is fully
funcitonal, and the cartridge has been verified in NT. My BusLogic
controller is set to support the drive as a permanent hard drive
rather than a removeable.

Does anyone have an idea what's going on here? Or how to fix it??

-Chris