data recovery

i screwed up a linux installation and in order to restore my system i had to undergo a destructive recovery option...in the process i lost quite a bit of un-backed up data...is there any way to retrieve it? any freeware on da net maybe...or any other possible way at all...? one of my friends said that if the pc performed only a quick format, i could (??)...

running windows xp home edition sp2

There are products which can recover data but there are some big proviso's here. If the data was on a part of the drive that now contains new files it has been physically over-written and will not be recoverable. I have had some success with restorer pro in recovering data from deleted partitions but only in the areas of the drive that weren't overwritten.