What I have been doing for a few years is boot to one of the Linux Live CD's. Then
you mount the Windows Drive to see if the data is there. Most the live Cd's will
be able to write Data to a CDR, or some sort of usb drive if you have one.
Puppy
Linux is only about 75 megabytes, so it's small size makes a easier Download.
You could also try to just reinstall Windows over the top of itself with out Formating,
but you risk losing your Data.
