panic attack storage

YES.
(PRINT ME)

1) First of all, don't write any data to that critical drive with photos. Don't format it, do nothing.

2) Turn off your PC, then remove the cables to that drive (just unplug from the rear).

3) Install Windows 7, motherboard main chipset drivers, remaining drivers, Windows updates etc. to the proper drive.

4) Get a recovery program (see www.easeus.com or google for others). There may be good free programs, but I don't have time to look into that. The Easeus non-free version is $70 which seems crazy to me.

5) Shutdown and reattach that drive, AND another drive that is large enough to store the DATA you will copy to it (can be a USB drive). If your drive was half full and 2TB, then a 1TB drive will be plenty. The RECOVERY drive must be formatted properly like normal so you can write files to it.

6) Bootup and run EASEUS or other free software.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm

7) The recovery software will take many HOURS and will scan your drive with photos etc. You destroyed the index so it looks for patterns (like ".jpg" which indicates a particular photo). It then tells you what it found which should hopefully be everything.

(The data for your pictures etc exists on the hard drive's physical platters. The recovery software just has to find it. If you are missing anything, it will be likely because you overwrote something while beginning the Windows 7 installation. Since you didn't seem to actually install Windows 7 you may have lost NOTHING. Again, it sounds like you destroyed the INDEX (like a books table of contents) but none of the actual files.)

A list is generated, then you COPY that data over to the recovery drive.

8) When you are certain your data has been recovered, you can re-format the drive you damaged (NTFS, Full Format).

9) *I advise you to invest in a DVD or BluRay PC drive compatible of writing M-Disc (Millienata). These DVD's are about $30 for a 10-pack and can store about 4500MB (4.3GB) per disc. Then place these in a secure location.

You can also do a RAID1 setup or buy a Western Digitial Live Duo device which is RAID1, but I feel most comfortable with the M-Disc solution as a backup.

GOOD LUCK.

P.S. Since you are NOT writing to the drive, you can try different FREE programs first. Google for "free recovery software".