I haven't had to do this in quite a while, but it looks like some are having success with this:
http://findandmount.com/I've personally never used it. MS also has granular steps to recover one, but you have to know exact specs (which you probably don't have)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/245725Quote:
To Recover a Deleted NTFS Volume
Re-create the exact same volume but choose not to format it. This may be difficult if you do not remember the exact size you had created originally, especially because the Disk Management snap-in tends to round partition sizes.
Using Dskprobe.exe, recover the backup boot sector for the NTFS volume from the end of the volume. Because it is a dynamic volume you may need to use Dmdiag.exe to help find the backup boot sector, or search for it by using Dskprobe.exe (on the Tools menu, click Search Sectors).
After rewriting the NTFS boot sector, quit Dskprobe.
In Disk Management, click Rescan Disks on the Action menu. This should mount the volume for immediate use.
Let's just hope your friend hasn't written a single byte of data to the borked partition, or he's probably screwed.