Re: recovering files
cgsecurity (dot) org / wiki / TestDisk
very excellent tool. last year while installing XP i accidentally formated a data HD. i thought i had lost everything but then i got this software. it recreated the whole partition info, indexes and everything else that was needed to restore my HD to its previous state. everything was recovered and not a single file was lost. just a few weeks ago my bro lost all data on one of his external HD and i used the same software to restore/recover the HD back to its previous state.
i hope it will help you aswell.