ext3 format kills?

[f0rc3]

hi,
I have a 30 gb external toshiba hard disk which uses an usb to ide bridge, vmware detects it as alcor micro usb device. I started having problems since i used the hard disk to install virtual machines on it, but it was still working. Last week I decided to format it to ext2fs files system as i thought the recylcer and system restore on windows was taking its toll on the hard disk, and i had downloaded a program to mount ext2 fs on windows anyway. since then i have not been able to access the hard disk, i get the safely remove icon on the systray when i insert it, but nothing shows up on disk management, device manager shows a usb storage device and reports it as working properly. I tried using all the software on hddguru site but i always get device is not ready. the only data i can get about the hd is when i look up the SMART attributes using the software and it is:

Current date and time: 8/11/2007 3:48:48 AM
Hard Disk Wipe Tool 2.35 build 1178; http://hddguru.com
SMART Attributes for Q”w5ý“wQ”wXý“w÷“wXý“wyþ“wÍþ“wyþ“wðþ“w ñ÷“wðþ“w [3184241676.8 Gbytes]

SMART is unavailable because the device is not a Native IDE or SATA device.

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I cannot use it on linux as well, the disk is detected as /dev/fd0 which again is inaccessible no matter how hard i try

Any ideas, suggestions, criticism or comments would be highly appreciated as i cannot afford to buy a new hard disk .

b.t.w is is labelled as MK3021Gas HDD2181 Y ZE01 T
thanks

[cryoborgofthevenus]

Seems to me its a firmware failure. You will a need special tools (PC 3000 or other) to repair this problem...)

[hddguy]

Since you just formatted this disk I assume you do not need the data from it. It would probably be better to just replace it.

I would be interested to know what caused this, I have never seen this problem myself. Anyone know??