Lost database

While prepping a second server today the /var/lib/postgres/ directory got deleted. Yes, everything. We're running on Ubuntu 10.4 and Postgres 8.4. We immediately shutdown everything but now need to recover the directory tree. No, the customer did not do any backups - the database was just under 1 TB and they didn't want to take the time.

We're looking into using extundelete or ext4magic to try to recover the files and, if successful, are there any further steps we need to take to bring up the database again?

If we're unsuccessful, we do have a filesystem backup from several months ago that we can apply and then go through the tedium of trying to fill in the missing blanks for those months. Since there are so many rows, is there a tool or procedure we can use to verify the integrity of the data once Postgres is back up and running?

I don't expect any miracles, but want to be sure there isn't less intensive alternative out there.

Thanks,

Steve Erickson