He doesn't need a driver if it is working on XP but it is not and it is not even recognized by XP so, by installing a driver, it could cause XP to find the HD

Mmm.. the drive is USB... so SATA etc should not come into the equation? It would be entirely up to the disk controller to deal with disk interfacing from USB. And USB 2.0 drivers were incorporated in SP! and SP2.
I like this bit: "as it'd take longer to fix than to reinstall...?

Exactly what i was saying (actually native usb mass storage drivers are in Windows 2000 and ME), its just SP1 and SP2 increased the speed

Please read my post... it is working CORRECTLY on ANY OTHER WIN XP MACHINE. Even ones that never seen an external hard drive for all their usefull life :p

Everyone agrees that if it needed a driver, there would still be a yellow question mark in the device manager. There are none in my device manager.

I do understand, gogetta, but don't know the answer. I could make one point... do other USB devices that make a substantial power drain on the USB host work on your machine? Not thinking thumbdrives here, but maybe a wireless receiver or somesuch.

It could be but what's bugging me is that it all worked flawlessly before I formatted the hard drive.

Now right after windows is finished installing, it won't work... All the other usb devices do. No new devices since the formatting.

Aliens I tell you! haha. Though I'd really like to find the answer.

If it IS aliens... post the pics.

Is this correct, you have a reference to your drive in the Device Manager only if you "Show Hidden Devices" (without a yellow exclamation mark) but if you right click "My Computer", "Manage", there is no reference to your drive??

I can't see it anywhere. I tried uninstalling all the useless hidden device, with no luck.

can i suggest trying to repair windows? it's probably some missing file my friend or even try sfc /scannow.