Windows 7: (Urgent!) Need help recovering system files

I was supposed to format my friends computer and install Windows 7 for him (He was on Ubuntu 11.04) - After the install we updated windows (System update) about 3 times and an hour later he remembered that he had some very important school files on Ubuntu which are now lost due to me formatting his drive. I want to know if there is any way I could recover these for him? They were all open-office documents (About 4 of them, nonetheless they took him about 2 weeks)

roharia,
Welcome to SevenForums.

What ever you do, do NOT use the disk with the missing info until someone brings a solution for you.

I will give you a solution that has worked for others, but your case is a little different so I can make absolutely no guarantees.

I'm giving you to link to the portable version. Please read the description there.
Recuva - Portable version

Thanks for the quick reply; I'm trying it now.

Damn! It has an ETA of 14 hours! Is that normal? Should I wait it out?

I don't have an idea what you are talking about.

However, if that is the time for the scan and recovery, then:
YES. Wait it out.

14 hours is nothing compared to the anguish of losing days of work.

I hate to put a dampner on this but Ubuntu uses an entirely different file system and partitioning. I think it extremely unlikely that recuva will be able to recover them but don't let that stop you from trying.

You may need to do some googling in the linux community.
This may be worth a read
Recover Data Like a Forensics Expert Using an Ubuntu Live CD - How-To Geek