Please select Diskgetor software for data recovery from SATA II drives if you have MS Vista. I was able to recover valuable digital photos, PDF, eBooks from the primary boot disk that had two partitions that were deleted to expand the C: partition. Also, I was able to recover more files from a second new SAMSUNG HD160GJ that was reformatted when it was not identified by VISTA even after POST detecting it.
Thanks to all of you who have posted here. I downloaded evaluation versions of Diskgetor and two other data recovery software. I opted for Diskgetor after reading in their web site some sound advise for buyers - first use the evaluation version and then if you see files that you want to recover, then buy the software. I purchased the software on the web. I think it is value for money :)
Two days ago, I used the evaluation version as well as a pirated version of another more expensive software. That software took the whole of the night to scan a 160GB SATA II hard disk; created the tree structure but did not show any files. Thus, I was not sure how the real software would perform and made a good decision to delay purchasing it.
Invariably, it is better to seek advise from other folks in the region - South Asia or ASEAN because our tight budgets does bring the best out of us as well as from tools we use.
I thought of complimenting because you folks relieved a lot of my anxiety as I was able to recover digital pics of my two kids that are more valuable to me than anything else.