Need Serious HD Recovery Help PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP

[mgruen@ambrosia.dfwmm.net]

  Okay, first the story, no there's too much, let me sum up.  My hard 
drive was running a little slow (Focus, internal 300+meg).  I start 
playing, accidentily hit either erase or format for the wrong partition 
of my hard drive.  Poof 30megs of utilities up in digital dust.  
  I whiped out Deliverance and prayed.  After an hour and a half of 
scanning the drive, just on the last block, blip, the program hung.  I 
tried again this morning.  Again it hung on the last block.  Hmmmm, I 
start inspecting this block and I find data that is not mine and never 
was.  That is Microsoft Powerpoint, other PC programs and nick names for 
people I've never heard of.  This leads one to believe that Alltech's drives 
are refurbs that they never perform a low-level format on.  Urrrg.  Don't 
even get me started what I think of Alltech in general and especially 
right now.

  Problems:  How does one recover files that are there, but you have no 
access to them?  Am I SOL?
  
    Also, should a hard drive slow down (even when just being scanned by 
the computer as it's loading the drive onto the desk top) just because 
theres more on it or would this be a framentation problem OR do I have a 
deeper problem with it.
    
     I've wasted so much time in the last two days doing what little I 
can.  I'm getting ready to chuck it all, do a low level format, 
repartition and spend the next week loading everything off of disks and 
reorganizing them on my drive again.  (Plan B, is a FOR SALE on the 
apple2.marketplace).  
______________________________________________________________________________
           "Action, Adventure: A Jedi Craves Not These Things."     

ESPECIALLY NOT RIGHT NOW!!!!!---  M        mgruen@ambrosia.dfwmm.net