maxtor 80 g external HD

I had an iMac ( OS 9.2 and OS X) from which I moved a lot of photos, music and
text files to a Maxtor HD I had just purchased.
Later when I went to use it, half the icons on the Maxtor HD directory
had PC written on them and wouldn't open.
In the meantime, I had a problem.....
The 6G HD couldn't handle 9 and X.
Crashes, freeze ups, so I trashed the OS X since most of my apps
were on 9. The Maxtor problem didn't change.
Then......later...... the blinking question mark. ( .....and I just found Ric's note on the blinking question mark, Thank you. I also had a great Power Computing
mac that did the same thing but the internal CD drive didn't work so I can't reinstall and I can't get a driver from Toshiba fro that model anyway)
So.............since Maxtor won't answer my e-mails I don't quite know how to get my data back. I am now on a G3 laptop but the Maxtor problem is stil there.

If you got to the end of this epistle...thanks,

David