> I did fdisk and removed the ext3 partition on my 500GB external USB drive, > thinking I was working on a usb stick instead. ugh. > > then I did 'mkdosfs' on it. ugh ugh. > > Before messing with it any more at all, what good ideas can you all > suggest for trying to get my data back? > > Please don't tell me it's all gone (though I"m afraid it is). TestDisk <http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk> TestDisk can * Fix partition table, recover deleted partition * Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup * Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector * Fix FAT tables * Rebuild NTFS boot sector * Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup * Fix MFT using MFT mirror * Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock * Undelete files from FAT, NTFS and ext2 filesystem * Copy files from deleted FAT, NTFS and ext2/ext3 partitions.