Can't access HDD please help

[camel_456]

Earlier today I stupidly plugged the HDD from my WL700ge into my Windows XP PC thinking I would be able to access the data from it. When I booted the PC I think it tried to boot from the Asus drive which I reckon must have changed something on the drive.

Still acting like a total idiot and not realising the drive was Linux formatted I proceeded to the Disk Management utility in Windows XP, it asked me if I wanted to "Initialise the disk" and I thought "hey, maybe this will make it show up in windows explorer". So I proceeded to initialise the disk, although I didn't get a confirmation dialogue or anything like that so I'm not sure if it actually did it. The drive just showed up as 230GB of un-partitioned space (I have 230GB worth of files on it)

So, now I bet you can guess what happens next?! Suddenly realising I had just risked all my data by plugging the drive into my PC I hurriedly unplugged it and fixed it back into my WL700ge, now, when I push the power button on the Asus box the IDE light blinks a couple of times and the drive spins up but nothing else happens. (No Ready light)

As you can imagine I'm really worried about my files! I have done a bit of searching on these forums but have never ever used Linux before so am a bit confused by it all.

I do have an Ubuntu livecd but I don't know if I can use that to salvage my data.

I've also plugged the drive back into my PC and ran the TestDisk application which did show the partitions on the drive, but then I didn't know what to do next. can anyone link me to a step by step tutorial for an absolute Linux beginner or give me any advice on software that could help me recover my drive.

Any help is extremely appreciated! I'd really like my data back!

Regards

Cameron

[camel_456]

I don't mean to be a pest but can no one help me?

[camel_456]

Success!

I followed this tutorial: http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=10198 and now I have all my files save a sound

now I just have to fix this drive!