cannt format my external hard drive

I have this simpledrive 250 GB harddrive which when i connect to my PC, it shows up under "my computer" , but after i click and open no file is seen in the drive. now if i try to right click on the icon and click format, nothing happens, i dont see formating started.
when i go to disk management i dont see the drive listed.
when i click disk manager>disk drives i can see WDC WD25.... usb device listed.

please help how to make this thing formatted.
(i get same problem with my laptop also)

 

You might try using the command line version of format. You can get to it by running cmd.exe from within windows or, if that doesn't work, use f8 when booting to get to dos when windows starts. I run XP, so you must translate this for win9X or Vista.

Pete

P.S. I just noticed you are a senior member, so maybe this is too basic an answer. If so, pardon the error.
Pete

 

What OS are you running?

The drive is already formatted. Why do you think you need to format it?

If you haven't put any files on the drive, you won't see anything except the name WDC WD250

 

thanks peter for the reply, no its not basic, rather i request you to please explain it in more detail how to do that, i am not a computer guy at all.
thanks plodr.. yes, i had some files in the drive. i just want to erase them all and format the drive so that if there is any corrupt sector or anything, it can be repaired. actually the drive gave problem earlier once and after i formatted i could use it again. but this time its not getting formatted..
and my computers are on xp..

 

So in Disk Management it is not listed as a Drive# below the CDROM drives?
How is it listed in My Computer? A drive letter?

 

under my computer its shown as G drive..
but under disk management G drive is not there..

 

here is some more info..

when i do... device manager>disk drive>WDC WD25 usb device (thats the ext hard drive) >properties>volume>populate>

i get this..

Disk : Disk1
Type: unknown
status: unreadable
capacity: 0MB


does this help in any way??

 

also i tried to do chkdsk G: /F /R
but i get this msg: cannot open volume for direct access.

 

So in Computer Management>Disk Management is it listed as Disk1?
Can you Right-click the Disk 1 and Initialize and then try format?

 

no under disk management it doesn't appear at all !!!

 

any solutions for my problem?