Creating NTFS filesystem without formatting the drive?!?!

I needed to re-install my OS yesterday and i always always always disconnect my secondary backup drive (Maxtor 60gb) to prevent doing anything stupid to all my important files. As i'm sure you have figured out from that one sentence and the fact i am posting a thread.... i forgot to disconnect my drive and in the hurry that i was in deleted the partition on it..

My computer is up again with XP. My reasoning is that by deleting the partition, i deleted the filesystem. So all of the data is still there, but there is no filesystem to..tell the computer how to access it. And to MY KNOWLEDGE, i dont know of a way to access it, or to configure a filesystem again WITHOUT formatting... and so i am turning to anyone out there that may know anything, even if it is that i am screwed so i do not waste any more time trying to fix this..

If anyone can, please! All of my art files were on there, and only half of which backed up...all my 3d scenes... all of my textures, and the newest updated flash file of my portfolio for colleges...

I really appreciate any help...

_Sean