Well I hooked it up directly to the motherboard..... same problem...

I already said I can't format via cmd.....

Super Fdisk keeps saying i have my write protection tab closed. Even though I've tried 10 different floppies, all open and closed.

Did you try the CD version Or just the floppy one?

Just the floppy it didn't give clear instructions on the cd one, how do I get it?

Also I've tried LLFormatting, and even then it won't "start" just freezes....

right next to whare you got the floppy on it says ,
Super Fdisk Bootable CD. its a.iso file
I also think you drive is a lost cause !

Well I got it working, finally foudn the ISO, it was a different DL. Doh!

But I had a couple problems.

1) I found out my computer won't but with that hard drive in. IT won't even get past the first screen. So obviously there is something wrong in POST, and that periphial is too bad.

2) When I have the program running in DOS, I can't "use" it, I can view it but i can't click anything and no keyboard strokes do anything.... to top off the fact even if I could I couldn't use that harddrive with it anyway.

Make sure the drive you want to format has a drive letter assigned.
Check Explorer. If you have multiple drives, it might be on drive F or G etc

If you are not sure the Driveletter Drive is the external driv, right-click > Properties. Otherwise Take note of the driveletter. Turn off the computer. Remove exteternal drive cable. Restart computer. Open Explorer. Is the driveletter drive still there? No? good. Turn off computer. Connect external HDD turn on computer .
(If yes, let me know.)

Run
Chkdsk /F x:

x represents the drive letter.
Press enter. The system will not need to reboot if it is not the main drive
OR
Start > Administrative Tools > Computer Management
Storage > Disk Management.
Select the drive in the list. Right-Click > Format

Err, like I've said in other posts.

1) I can't turn on the computer with the HDD plugged in, it won't start.

2) You can't chkdsk a RAW file system.

3) I've tried formatting from Disk Management, it just freezes and doesn't do anything.

Yes it has a drive letter....

Do you even read the thread? Or what.....

I think the hard drive is faulty. The Read/Write needle inside the harddrive sometimes becomes loose. When this happens the drive will not work ever again. You cannot open the HDD casing. Some External Drives come in an aluminium case. On one end has lights the other end has the cable and power connection.

If you can read the HDD label of the HDD then it is not in a protective aluminium casing. That is the Hard drive itself. You cannot open that.

External Drives require an external power source unless it is a laptop HDD which is powered by the usb.

Does this help?

I missed page 2 of answers. Sorry. Set the drive to slave.
In bios Boot settings Look for other devices = disabled

You say you want to rrecover files from the drive. You should not have formatted in the first place. Even if you can recover files after a format, you don't get them all and some files may be corrupted.

Acutally thats not true, I finally recovered most of the files (there was only one directory I couldn't acess, and I beilve it was corrupted from the hard drive failing anyway), after trying different software. I just want to format the drive to get it working now, to save some money.