I use a handy little tool called "recover" mhich is made (I think specifically) to work with EXT2 filesystems.
You enter various specs (like date, size, filetype) of the deleted stuff you are looking for, and then leave it to do its thing. When I used it, it returned HUUUUUNDREDS of files, yet I only wanted to recover like 15 files. They were shell-scripts, and I had a good idea of their general size, so it wasn't too bad.
The recovered files are saved as deleted-INODE numbers, which you then must rename to something you like (or their original filenames) and I found that the Recover tool was a super-duper gadget when I needed it.
If you cannot locate it (or sourcecode for it) let us know (if you want it that is); I should have the source still here somewhere, I can send you it.
EDIT - Here's a snippet from the man page:
Code:
DESCRIPTION
recover recovers a file which matches some ext2 - info about the deleted inode by getting all the
deleted inodes and filtering them. It's based upon the Ext2Undeletion-howto by Aaron Crane. Using this
utility, your chances to recover a lost file should increase a lot.
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE DELETED FILE
o Hard disk device name
o Year of deletion
o Month of deletion
o Weekday of deletion
o First/Last possible day of month
and the website:
SORRY - Broken Link. Website seems defunct.