i am unfamiliar with the software you are using, but ssh1/scp1 coupled with the term "compatibility mode" sounds like the protocol version error with ssh? Perhaps your ssh server only allows ssh v2...
my guess would be solaris recognize the drive has having an 'unknown' file system since it's NTFS, but even so you should be able to format it with whatever that version of solaris can support,...
I'm in a bit of a situation. I have this Sunfire 280R system that did not have a floppy drive in it, yet we needed one. We grabbed one from another Sun box we had laying around...