External drive not mounting after use on PC

[mookman]

Hi.

I am using a macbook pro with 10.5.8, and have an external hd (freecom 320gb). I have used it for around a year and it is almost full. The other day, after attaching it to a pc - when i now attach it to the mac, it does not mount, and the warning 'this disk is not recognised' etc comes up. It shows in disk utility, but does not allow me to verify/mount it. I'm guessing the pc has reformatted it or something

What can I do?! I have looked into data rescue software, but I'm not sure - the information cannot just disappear? and I just want the drive to have the same architecture, as all my music etc was organised in particular folders.

Thankyou

 

[Zyniker]

"Repair" is also unavailable in Disk Utility?

 

[mookman]

repair is not available, no.

in 'partition type' it says "Windows_FAT_32"

is this relevant (i'm guessing it is). i have another identical drive which is working fine (slightly larger, 400gb), and with this one, in disk utility, instead of "partition type", it says "format", and then "MS-DOS (FAT32)"

thats the only difference when looking at disk utility.

 

[simie]

I have had this happen to me before now and I cured it by simply switching the drive on and off a few times

 

[mookman]

thanks simie.
but it is a usb2 powered device, so that would mean just unplugging, and plugging in the drive... is this safe?