First of all, if it is an external HDD you must have been running it thru USB. When you deleted all of the files, did you have it set up with another windows program like 98SE or ME? If not, then what you need to do is go to the Manufacturer's website and download a program that will allow the HDD to be recognized and also to write zeros to it. What this means is you are turning every bit of the binary code back to zero so that the HDD will not hav ANY information left on it. For instance, when I worked for Gateway Tech support and ran into this kind of problem with the customers, sowetimes it was necessary to take the external HDD to another computer to get it to be recognized...I know a lot of people may not have this option. I know of several different methods on how to fix this, but I will need a lot more info on the HDD and what Windows program you are using in order to tell you how to correctly troubleshoot it. you can email me at john_potter2@yahoo.com.
John

I'd have thought that XP should have given you enough capability to blast the hard disc via USB; you'll probably need to use the "Local Storage Manager" snap in, which is to be found at "Control Panel - Performance and Maintenance - Administrative Tools - Computer Management", which pops up a new window, select "Storage" in the left hard tree then "Disc Management" and you should then be in the right place. Just take great care to ensure you zap the right disk! You want to remove all partitions from the notebook hard disc. If the drive is visible, right-click using the mouse and "Remove Logical Drive" should do the trick.

If that doesnt work, get the Hard disc installed into a PC. You can get notebook -> desktop IDE cables that take the 44 pin interface on your notebook hard drive and turn it into the "conventional" 40 pin + power connector that your ordinary desktop is expecting. The notebook drive will probably want to be the master on the channel you use; I'd probably not have another drive on th same cable to be safe. You could try the XP route again at this point, just in case it now works!

The alternative is to boot up the PC using a DOS floppy disc, then use the DOS "FDISK" command to remove any partitions on the notebook hard drive. If you are doing this I'd disconnect all other hard discs in the PC to remove even the slightest possibility that you might clean out the wrong drive!

Good luck!

And let's be careful out there....

Just this morning I had a 200 gig usb external drive go down windows would not recognise it. (I tried to defrag it and someting got corrupted and it didn't finish.) When I plugged it in by usb it would beep and show up in device manager but I couldn't access it.
Anyhow I plugged it into the mac and was able to erase it and format it to dos and now it works on my pc again.
Donny if you don't know anybody with a mac send it to me and I'll see if I can save your drive. either way I will return it to you. Of course you will lose all info it will come back blank.

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qqqwq@hotmail.com

Mike thanx so much for the offer......I just sent it to a friend who is in the know od PC's who will hopefully revive this 40G to working staus again so I can use it.....otherwise I'll just get another one .....meanwhile Im using my 10g in the T2 which works fine