Running: Vista Home Premium
Trying to install Ubuntu on a separate partition.
Vista's 'manage/shrink volume' wouldn't let me make a partition. All 'available' fields came up with just zeros. I don't know if that's relevant, but it's been a long day.
So I started using Gparted to make a separate partition (32 gigs out of 320.) But my power cord has a tendency to shift and make the computer appear plugged in when it is not. Long story short- it lost power somewhere along the way.
When I rebooted, it showed 1 32gb 'unallocated,' and a 266(?)gb 'unknown.' The square for unknown was black. I assigned the 23 gb partition to ntsc and it did that correctly in one second.
I hadn't burned the linux disk yet, but I had one of 'Windows 7,' so I installed that on the 32 gb partition.
Now they're both coming up as 'ntsc,' the 266gb is marked 'boot' and has 3 gigs occupied.
Using testdisk shows that I can restore my files, so they're still there. I just can't access them. Going to 'My Computer' shows only the 32 bit, marked 'c.'
Now, I'm a good girl and I backed up my personal files before I started this little endeavor. (The first three times can be chalked up to naivete, but I'm long out of excuses by now.)
Is there a way to get all the files back on that partition exactly where they were? I'd really love not to have to reinstall everything, if it's possible.
What should I do? Please no answers like "just use testdisk,' I have that but I don't know how to use it to ensure not bolluxing it up worse than it already is.

I don't understand what you are asking - you said you thought they were still there. If you can't boot the Vista, what woud be the point - even if you could "put them back" ?.
I'm surprised the Win7 install didn't place the boot code on that big partition - it's what usually happens (with previous releases) if you try to install to a non-boot partition. But if it did, you should see both in "My Computer" I would think.

Short answer, I think you're up for a re-install.
(BTW, I pesume ntsc is really NTFS ?)

How about first booting your Live CD, open a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal), and please post:
That will give us a better place to start.