sinclair_tm

with a mac, initialise means format, so thats a bad thing to do. goto your utility folder in the appication folder, and look for disk utility, open it and select your extrnal hard drive from the list on the left. now on the right side, find the tab named first aid. after clicking on it, click the button named repair disk at the bottom. if it finds any errors, run it again, and keep running it until it comes back fine. if it doesn't help bring the files back, then i don't know what to tell you but that you need to buy some data recovery software, and do not use the disk until you do.