I have to say that I'm not impressed with apple support.

However, I may have found a way out of my hole, although I don't know for sure yet..

There is a product http://www.prosoftengineering.com/products/data_rescue.php that claims to get your data without going via the catalog - we'll see.

I need a different HD to boot from first, but hopefully it will be able to save my data..

Cheers,

Paul.