Question : HOW TO RECOVER DATA BEING "ERASE" BY MACINTOSH DISK UTILITY

Good Day guys.... I have this very big problem concerning my external hd(120Gb) that is partitioned into 4. i have this one partition that is blank,meaning there is no data since i just reformat it using Windows OS. I plugged in my hd into a macbook and open the Disk Utility and try "erasing" one partition(30gb)(i have 4 partitions of 30gb each). In the Erase tab, there is a button "Security Option", since my plan is to just format one partition(so as to hopefully use it for transferring of files from my mac hd to my enclosure), i choose the "dont erase data" of the Security Option. After i press OK and Erase, to my surprise, all the other 3 partition just dissappear and it become to just one 120gb unallocated hd. After reading the help portion of the Disk Utility, i found out that only the readable part is erased and not the actual data. it is there as long as the hd is altered. Right now, i dont do anything about my "unallocated"  120gb hd since i knw that i can still recover my files or even return it to its orignal partion of 4. Guys, im just new to mac so i need your expert advices,it would be a great help. Thanks in advance.

Answer : HOW TO RECOVER DATA BEING "ERASE" BY MACINTOSH DISK UTILITY

I would recommend Data Rescue II, by Prosoft Engineering - it has saved my bacon a number of times. You can download a free trial, which will allow you to scan the drive for deleted files, but won't let you recover them until you purchase. It's not even that expensive (relative to the cost of data).

http://www.prosofteng.com/products/downloadcenter.php

Just don't use the HD at all in the meantime to minimise the risk of overwriting the sectors.