Subject says it all

I was downloading a game, tried installing it, logged myself off by accident and crashed my PC. So i shut it down, and unplugged the external hdd( it's a 2.5in samsung HM080HC drive). Gave it to a friend to install the game, but he said the drive didn't show up. I thought it might be a problem with Vista, since he has Vista, but I have XP, and my CP doesn't recognise it.

It's not in Device Manager, not in My Computer, not in Add or Remove hardware.

What should i do? if it's GONE how can i format it so i can use it again? If the drive was unplugged prematurely your data is probably gone...
Use the drive manuf. Diagnostics available FREE from their site to prepare it for use again.
Sorry 'bout your Luck.it's not ther What's not where ? ?

i tried what you said, put all the samsung utility software available here:
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287#samsung
on a floppy, booted it, but "no samsung drive detected"...How is it being reported in Disk Management ? ?

Right click My Computer and select Manage then Disk Management....find the drive ; right click it and select Properties....

If it says RAW your data is gone.
You will need to format the drive to use it again.
My drive doesn't show up there -.-
one of the first things i've tried. Drive 0(C:\) Drive 1(CD-Rom) but no other drivesif it worked with vista its usually backward compatible, but you should look into seeing if it is compatible with xp.Is the drive still under warranty?Actually...it doesn't work in Vista or XP or 2000 for that matter
as for it under warranty... I got it off my Dad(who is in China right now) and have had it for just over 1 year... so i actually don't know
if i was to pay for it to be fixed..how MUCH would it be? (Sterling)Have you tried hooking it up to another machine ? ?
Is it being detected in the BIOS ? ?Yes i have tried hooking it up on to a different machine about 5 now...
My firiend's Vista Machine, Win2000 machine and 3 different XP machines

that's the problem you see... i have a Dell PC, so the BIOS is by Dell(Phoenix actually, but it has Dell plastered all over it, but you get the picture), you can't do any of the advanced STUFF like overclocking and stuff with it, so i can't see if it's detected.

I don't think it's actually detected though, having tried everything mentioned above.
How can i see if it's being detected then? sorry, i'm such a noob LOL. if it's not being detected, whawt can i do....The only thing I can think of is that there might be a problem with the case rather than the drive itself. Would it be possible to open up the case without damaging it? I can't tell by looking at in online. But if you can get it open, you can check the connections or maybe even take the drive out and slave it in your computer. Of course, to slave it, you would have to buy an adapter because that is a laptop drive.

It could also be a cable issue. Perhaps you might want to try a new USB cable.

And does it feel/sound like it's actually getting power when you turn it on?Well, i have taken it apart before, the drive is getting the power cuz i feel it vibrating, as for the connections, it's sitting on top of a board with pins connecting to the IDE interface on the drive. Wel.. i'm getting a new one anyway.... so don't think it's worth slaving it

Well, it's up to you. But if it were me, I'd want to try it out just to find out for sure.