Format over catalog file, tried to recover file but now corrupt?!

Question

I recently performed a format of my hard drive.  When doing this, I did not back up my catalog file from photoshop elements(I have pse 8.0).  I backed up everything else, and I do have all of the original full size photo files from my hard drive, ~11,000 image files which are now all put back to their exact same location on the hard drive as before the format. Horrible mistake on my part not to back this up, but I thought this info was stored in the individual photo files itself, but I know now that this info was in the catalog file that I more than likely have lost.
First off, following the format elements 8.0 was installed and all of my photos were migrated into elements(all thumbnails visible in organizer with no problems).  Elements and the organizer worked perfectly fine, besides the fact that I had lost all of my tag and album info that was stored in the catalog file. 
My husband purchased some file recovery software following the format of the hard drive to try and recover the catalog database file from the hard drive.  The recovery software did find the file and was able to recover it from the partition of the hard drive that had been formatted over.  Following the recovery of the file, he tried to move the file manually into the folder C:\program data\adobe\elements organizer\catalogs\my catalogs\.  Doing this replaced the new catalog file that had been recently created by photoshops elements following the reformat with the one that was recovered by the recovery software.  Next, he opened up Photoshop elements and tried to launch the organizer.  Following this, we received the following message from organizer: “the catalog could not be opened, it is either corrupt, or the version is out of date and cannot be updated”. We then clicked on ok and then tried to hit the repair button, which it then told me that the catalog file could not be repaired.  We also tried the File>Catalog> Open command in elements organizer to open the new catalog file and this gave me the same exact error message and same results.
We have also tried to run the psedbtool found on the web on the catalog file that was recovered by the recovery software.  Unfortunately, the file is unreadable by the tool and the tool gives me the following message when trying to use the tool on the recovered catalog file: "can't open catalog database: file is encrypted or is not a database". I also tried the -csv file and -printVolumeTable options of the tool and it gives me the same message.  Because I am getting this error message, it does not seem as if this tool will be able to help me with the recovered catalog database file.
Is my catalog file that I have recovered corrupt and unusable, or is there some way to get this file to work? 
The recovery software I used if from Pareto Logic named "Data Recovery Pro".  Could the problem be with the recovery software and maybe a different recovery software may do a better job of recovering the file?
Thnks for any help!

Answer 1

To make the story short, have you backed up your photos?  If the answer is yes then why can't you create a new catalog and import the photos to this new catalog?
To create a new catalog, the basic process is:
1) Open the Organizer and click on File
2) Click Catalog
3) click New
4) Type a name for the new catalog
5) Click OK
Now it is a question of importing the photos to this new catalog.  the basic process is as follows:
1) Open the Organizer and Click File
2) Click Get Photos & Videos
3) Click From Files and Folders
4) click "down-arrow" icon to choose the folder
5) CTRL+ Click on your photos to import (or CTRL + A to select all photos)
6) click Get Media
7) Click Show All to view your photos
Hope this gets you started.  Your formatted hard drive will not let you get your old files so you are stuck.  You should always make a habit to back-up your data on a flash drive because they are very robust and can be stored safely  away from the computer you are working on.  Your your machines own Hard Disk as a back-up store is definitively not a good strategy.