[CoLoCo] Urgent Help Needed: File system screw-up

[Ringo Kamens]

Ok, so here's the situation. I wanted to get a fresh install of ubuntu
but still back up the old data.
I took the data on /dev/sda2 (my old linux partition which mounted as
/) and copied it over to /dev/hda12 using cp and the f/r/p flags. I
was copying from an ext2 to an ext3 partition, but it worked. Then, I
installed my new ubuntu install on /dev/sda2.

Once it was done installing, I got to the grub boot menu and had a
choice of booting from /dev/sda2 (new system) or /dev/sda12 (old
system) and for kicks I chose the old system. It didn't boot at all,
and I'm guessing it was because of the new, fancier file system. It
was on ext2 before and now it had to deal with ext3. So I decided to
reformat the partition over to ext2 to make it work. I booted the
ubuntu live cd, disabled automounting, and did "sudo gparted". I then
went to /dev/sda12 and chose "format to" ext2 thinking it would
convert the partition, not completely erase it. Now I can't see ANY of
my data and this was over a year of work I had on there and I urgently
need some of the files.

The good news is, only the partition table has been overwritten and I
think I can recover most of the data but I don't know how. Does
anybody have any suggestions? I would *really* appreciate any help you
could give me on this, seeing as how important it is that I get this
data back.
Comrade Ringo Kamens