Cannot access my external hard drive!

A few month ago when I was transferring my files from a PC via a Seagate external hard drive (originally formatted on that PC) to my then new Intel iMac OS X 10.5.6, I made a newbie mistake in not properly "dismounting" before I pulled the USB. Now I cannot access the files on the Seagate external hard drive either from my iMac nor on my PC.
Are there simple ways I can fix this without spending money on new software? Or would Apple Genius Bar be able to take care of this? Thanks!

1) disconnect that external cables and all
2) power cycle that Seagate, power on power off a few times
3) zap pram on imac
4) reset the power manager on the imac look that up on apple/support and type in search window
when done:
1) power on imac
2)power on seagate
3) connect usb to imac first
4) connect usb to seagate should mount if it does not then no luck.

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