How do I format an external HD with Recovery Disk Assistant on?

Hi,
I have seen a couple of threads on this, but I'm still not "Compos Mentis" with how to format an external drive with the Recovery Disk Assistant on.
I have a 320GB which has my recovery disk assistant on - "Don't ask!" - Anyway it goes without saying that I want it all back, but I'll be damned if I can get there. I have managed to view (after a lot of faffing) what I thought was the External Drive, but now realise that it's not...this is what I am now seeing - are these removable via partition (disk0s1 & Recovery HD) as I have been merrily trying to erase them in he belief that they were the external HD and as far as I can see nothing has changed...only my annoyance!
Anyway in short, I need this
A) view the external drive and
B) Format it back to 320GB
Can anyone spoon feed me a way out?
Thanks

I don't understand what you mean by, "how to format an external drive with the Recovery Disk Assistant on."
You don't need to use the Recovery HD to format an external drive. Just use Disk Utility:
Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.

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         to the Destination entry field.
     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
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