Kinda late, but if you didn't write in the formatted disk you can recover probably 99% of it. Get some software like Get Data Back or Recuva and give it a go.
Also, don't copy/paste stuff, that's pretty much the unsafest way. Get Puresync and use it to compare and sync folders.
dont know if its possible, since it was the laptops internal HD that everything was on. 1 1/2 years old and filled just about all 250GB.