Hi
I agree with Brent, booting into linux has a better chance of the disk being initialized than with windows.
gparted is a free utility for modifying disk partitions, but worth checking if it recognizes the partition type as it easily recognizes partitions that windows setup can't.
was it just one partition or more than one ? what was the file system formatted to?
you could try cloning the hard disk if you have a spare, else try ghost to create an image of the partition(not disk). chances are it can successfully create an image. that can then be restored to a different drive.
Else you'll have to try a data recovery software. you've got to pay for most of them but there might be something free that's reliable.
as in another post, don't keep power cycling your disk. if its connected, leave it connected, or leave it disconnected till you have a software or a plan.
I used a software called tiramisu about 10 years ago to recover hard disks corrupted by a very nasty virus, I got all my data, but its quite expensive now.
have a look at the westerndigital data recovery links. might be expensive, but good to call and get some pricing.
http://support.wdc.com/recovery/inde...selregion=apac
you also got to think of how much you need the data and then take the risk by attempting recovery yourself, else you might have to give it to recovery specialists if its really important.
if you got windows to recognize it, there might be a good chance for recovery.