I back up wallets with 2 Bitcoins on it... and I am a lazy guy. I don't understand you guys that have fairly large wallets and don't make a backup of one freaking file! Of course, I bet you do from now on. I guess some people just have to learn the hard way.
I couldn't agree more.
You never bothered to drag a file worth 1500$ over to your flash drive? Sounds like you need to be lashed into shape, soldier...
Was that wallet encrypted? If it wasn't you may use a whole range of tools including hex editors and data carving tools. If it was, the hex editors will be of no avail.
Also, before you actually do anything with that drive, it would be prudent to make a perfect bit-by-bit image of your Windows partition on another drive and carve data off that image.
Do the words "Linux", "dd" and "foremost" ring a bell?