PROBLEM SOLVED !!! I have tried again, this time with the WD Smartware setup application. I realised it also has an option to erase the drive and it formatted the drive without any problems : ) Interestingly WD Quick Format still does not see the mounted drive (only gives the “Item 1” list in the dropdown menu) but Disk Utility can now also format the drive once it has been formatted with WD Smartware. Must be some proprietary WD thing . . . They could really just make life simple and state “You will ONLY be able to format a new drive in the MyBook enclosure with WD Smartware” There are dozens of post online with people telling other people to throw their (presumably perfectly good) hard drives out because of this error . . .
Hope this will help others as well : ))
