HDD Data Loss (Windows XP problem)! (how to recover)

[sheruken]

Alright, first of all let me apologise as I didnt actually do any search (anywhere). I just straight away made this topic, but I'll still appreciate if anyone can help me out with this...

I have 3 Partitions on 2 Hard Disk Drives. Both are 160 Gig HDDs. The First HDD is Parted into 2 C and D and the other 160 is sole-ly used as E.
Now this E drives has all my Car Videos / TV Shows / err.. etc.. From this drive while I was watching a TV show, the comp just crashed.. I had a few problems rebooting and all, but once it started it went into ScanDisk and some kinda stuff was happening (said trying to recover data and all). But once it booted it was working fine, except few of the folders were gone.. I tried to do a Search even went into DOS mode and tried to find these folders but they were gone (no its not the hidden issue too). When I select all the folders in this drive manually and do properties it shows me 70 gigs used.. But when I open "My Computers" and check the E drive properties I get 140gigs used.. and only few GB free.. Now there is some important work related stuff also in this drive.. So I would prefer not to completely format it... Is there any way to recover the lost data from this?
I have checked for badsectors but there arent any in this HDD.. But lately whenever I am using this drive my comp just freezes for a few mins (the mouse doesnt move, its like the machine just crashed or froze) for a few mins but then after I CTRL+ALT+DEL in a few seconds it shows me the LOCK COMPUTER or goto TASK MANAGER or LOG OUT or SHUTDOWN screen.. And after I press escape things get back to normal.. I do need someof the data that I've lost.. I have backed up a lot of my DVDs here (DVDs that I've lost or sold off now), so I'd really like my data back..
If with some data recovery software this problem can be solved please let me know.. Which one to use and what about the "freezing" problem also..

As I said in the Subject I am using Windows XP Pro..
My HDD is still in warrenty so I can still replace it if there genuinly something wrong with it, so let me know if there is.. coz most of the time Its working fine (except for the fact that its eaten up some of my huge folders, including err.. my porn collection)... :p

Thanks..

[Shinigami]

RecoverMyFiles is another program which is able to do a sector by sector search of data on your disk.

What I think must have happened is a mass scale corruption of your file allocation table.

Do you hear any funny noises coming from the HDD? Especially when it freezez?

If something like this happens, it's really time to move on and get a new HDD. This one sounds like it's going the way of the dodo.

[sheruken]

Thanks guys,
I'll try Getdataback first and if things dont seem to change i'll try RecoverMyFiles..
No Shinri_Shiogami, I donot hear any funny noises from my HDD even when it freezes, Although I forgot to say one thing whenever I Cut and Paste something from E drive to any E Drive folder, that particular file is currupted always. Copy Paste works absolutely fine.. Does this mean my HDD is gone? Coz I have to give a genuine reason for a replacement.. !!

[dutchmasterflex]

If you can get your hands on Symantec Ghost, You might be able to save a lot of stuff..

[TNT]

Norton Utilities, i believe is the name of the hard drive recovery program. pretty cheap and works great.

http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/backup_recovery/index.html

[AlienDB7]

One less known but very powerful tool is Spinrite. Don't underestimate its power because of its small size!

[nthfinity]

One less known but very powerful tool is Spinrite. Don't underestimate its power because of its small size!
are you familiar with "lost and found" ??

somewhere, i have the uber powerful 3.5" disk (or was it 2?) taken from the market for rendering computer forensics teams useless... or something