Need help recovering files from EXT3 after NTFS reformat

[collectorx]

Ok, I know the subject sounded strange so here is the problem.

Had 40 Gigs of data stored on an EXT3 partition. Needed to reinstall XP after it crashed, however I (being stupid for doing this at 3am so yes it's my fault) accidentally chose the EXT3 partition by accident (windows saw it as unformatted space just like the area I prepped for it so there were actually 2 unformatted area) and basically reformatted the drive as NTFS and windows started installing.

I stopped the installation after I realized what I did so basically the drive is there with the XP files, but what I need to find out is if there is a way to actually find the files that were there before the NTFS format. currently there is less than 500 megs of data on the drive after XP did it's initial install. So since I had almost 40 Gigs of data there, I'm hoping to recover at least some of it.

Does anyone know of a way of recovering data from from a drive that's been reformatted with a different file system???

I currently run Xandros 4.1 so I only have Linux installed and most of the file recovery programs I can find that say they will recovery data from EXT3 drives, even those reformatted with a different file system, only work if you have a native Windows installation available. Unfortunately, for some reason, Windows will not install anywhere on the main drive. I have reformatted that drive many times with NTFS, Fat32, etc...Windows will just not install. Xandros is on the 2nd drive working fine while windows was on Drive 1.

Any ideas will be most helpful,

Thank you,

CollectorX

[hal8000]

If you had only changed the partition type but not formatted data retrieval would have been easier, however there
may be some hope, for you on freashmeat:

http://freshmeat.net/projects/giis

Not sure if it will work after ntfs format, but if it does, post back and let everyone know.