Thanks - in my case, a very short step ! Luckily, a friend had some recovery software, and for the price of a couple of pints (never knew whiskey was so expensive !) he recovered a great deal of it onto a spare drive, and what he didn't recover was unimportant, so I am now a happy Wombat (my daughter's name for me !).
So, you have not escaped my bizarre images for long, I'm pleased (or sorry) to say.