Data disappeared from expansion

I have been using linpus for a while now with a few light modifications to the default setup
I have disabled the acer desktop and now use xfce with compiz (and was using cairo dock for a while too)

I have been using a 32gb SDHC card in the expansion slot and my open office documents have been saving there by default.
Recently though, all of the documents I had saved have disappeared, and when I take the card out to try in my windows computer to see if they are there, the card does not register.
Thunar does not show the card being present, even though it is in my expansion slot - any ideas what I can do to try and get my valuable documents back???

If I do manage to get this sorted out - would it be a good idea not to use the storage expansion in future - is this a common problem???

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Matt

 

Don't worry, crisis averted. It was just a problem with the automount after following this very neat way to get an xfce desktop (i used a desktop switcher before).
http://jorge.fbarr.net/2008/08/06/acer-aspire-one-tips-and-tricks/#Changingtothedefaultdesktop
From reading other forum posts it appears reverting to the default xfce desktop without using a desktop switcher stops automount from working.

I used this very easy to follow set of instructions to fix the automount - which worked perfectly...
http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=4931&hilit=fix+automount

hope this helps any people with similar problems