"So I got on to Maxtor, who despite a few emails back and forth, ended up linking me to cNet downloads page for file recovery software. So I started downloading. I've downloaded at least 10 freeware, trial and shareware packages. The best any of them managed to do was to list all my files, without file names or folder structure, and offer to recover them. It took it 3 hours of scanning to get to that stage.
"Enter Recover My Files v3.94. 4 Mins to accurately list every file on the drive with directory structure. Now 5 minutes later and it's saving them to a brand new drive I bought today.
"So next time your up shit creek, check these guys out:
http://www.recovermyfiles.com/"