AND... Lesson 2 (recently confirmed...): Don't keep relevant data on a system disk that you are messing with. First move the data out, then format, partition, initialize...
Isn't that the same as keeping a current backup of your stuff? If you have a backup you shouldn't have to worry because it's all somewhere else already. I think that's what I (and others,) are getting at. As for unplugging the drives, only do that if you can't trust yourself to do it. Me unplugging my drives will degrade and destroy my RAID-5 HOWEVER I have backups of it so not all would be lost if I did nuke it.
I snicker how some preach about how i should have back ups and how i should be more careful blah blah, I'm sure all ya made a booboo a few times in your lives so I'm no different. I asked for a program to recover that worked faster then the one I was using and no more. Thanks to the members that actually helped
Your welcome but you only have yourself to blame if you nuke you drive and don't have a backup that contains all of your stuff you care about. If your backup doesn't have everything, than it's incomplete and isn't a full backup. All of which is still your fault and was entirely avoidable by either:
A: Not reinstalling Windows before you were awake (considering you have stuff you cared about, this was a bad call on your part.)
B: Not being more careful about what drive your selecting to install Windows on.
C: Not double checking your backup before you nuked your machine.
Tired or not, you made several mistakes that brought you down this road, you didn't have a full backup which was #1 and you made huge changes to your machine right after you woke up and before your brain was running which was number two, and you didn't make sure you had everything which was #3.
I'm no going to peach that I'm perfect and I will never lose data, but I also double check all of my backups before I nuke Windows and if Windows fails itself, I use a Linux livecd to ensure I didn't miss anything. Just being more careful could save you time and a headache. I personally also don't reinstall Windows right after I just woke up, if I'm really tired, after drinking, or anything that inhibits my brain from running normally. I've already been down this road many years ago and I say all of these things because no one else should have to deal with what I did when I lose all my stuff because I was too stupid to keep my backup up to date or to unplug my backup drive because this very thing has happened to me before as well and the best way to prevent it is to simply be more careful.