... for n00bies like me anyway. ^_^ I'm running a live disk and a couple of usb hdds.

Command line linux, and the file system is still a bit fuzzy for me. Using Photorec, I got to the line to select a destination to receive 'recovered' files and had a big d'oh. Obviously I don't want to write to the ramdisk. I didn't know how to get to the right place.

So-o one uses the arrow keys to navigate to the double dot (..) lines in the terminal window. Repeatedly until you get to a screen with 'media'. (Previously noting exactly where you want to write them, of course.) Then tick a 'Y'.

Here's a tutorial, middle of the page, that's very handy.
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntucat/recoverdeletedfiles/