NEED HELP! Disk Utility mixed up HD and erased 2TB of data!

I just encountered a disaster thanks to disk utility and am asking for your help. PLEASEEEEEEE
Details: MacBook Pro using Lion OSX
Here is the short story. Like any semi-computer nerd, I have a lot of external harddrives for all my work. One was having issues and showed symptoms of a break down. So I backed-up everything on the drive and tried to reformat it. Half-way through, disk utility seemed to get stuck or something. The bar did not progress, and the estimated time to complete continued to go up. After about two hours, I needed to grab some files off another harddrive. No big deal. I left the harddrive being reformatted still plugged in, so the process would continue undisturbed. In the second USB port, I plugged in an expansion port with 2 other external harddrives connected to it. ...Within seconds, literally seconds, diskutility erased one of the new harddrives and renamed it. I'm not kidding. It happened so fast, I couldn't stop it. It worked faster then I've ever seen DiskUtility erase a drive…10…20 seconds max. I lost 2 terrabits of files. Information, files and personal documents that cannot be replaced. This is a huge disaster!
Is there anyway to fix this? Is the restore image feature in disk utility bring back files? Worst of all, there is no reasonable argument for why disk utility mixed it up. I never unplugged the drive it was reformating. I never touched the program or clicked anything. And how did it mix them up? You have to select the drive explicitly that you want to erase. One was a Western Digital HD and the other aSeagate, both with different names, models and serial numbers. Computers don't simply mix up drives. It's coded. Second, how could it erase the drive so fast? It never even mounted. By the time the new drive appeared, it was already erased and renamed.
This is huge. I cannot replace these files. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Hello HB3, and a warm welcome to the forums!
8) Attempted to restart with literature saying that you can restart Disk Utility as though it would delete temp files and start again. System could not be found (folder/face/folder/face showed on the screen)
You really shouldn't use a lower OSes DU to work on a higher one.
2) Used Disk Warrior to rebuild directory on disk, but I believe that there is NO space at all. Disk Warrior took a very long time...more than an hour.
What version of DW?
Anyone know of a utility that can help?
If DiskWarrior can't fix it, you might try Data Rescue II...
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
(Has a Free Demo to see if it could or not, but you'll need another drive to recover to).
Or FileSalvage...
http://www.subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?%20mainpage=product_info&productsid=1
to recover what you can, both can work when Disks are unmountable.

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If you moved Disk Utility from the /Applications/Utilities directory, i.e. the Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities folder, move it back to that folder.
If memory serves, the "workaround" you cited involving iTunes only applies if you are using Mac OS X 10.3.9.
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привет Roman,
Mac OS X: About the Reset Printing System feature ...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1341?viewlocale=en_US
10.5/10.6/10.7/10.8 instructions...
In System Preferences>Fax & Print, Right click or Control+click on the Printers list Sidebar, choose Reset Printing System.
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http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031215144430486
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Any devices that previously appeared in your Printer List and Fax List will need to be added again after resetting the printing system.
Resetting the printing system in Mac OS X 10.5.x+++
    1.    To use the Reset Printing System feature in Mac OS X 10.5.x, follow these steps:
    2.    Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu.
    3.    Choose Print & Fax from the View menu.
    4.    Control-click on list of printers on the left side of the window, then choose "Reset printing system" from the contextual menu. If you don't see a list of printers, Control-click on the text "Click + to add a printer or fax" and select "Reset printing system..."       As an alternative, if you currently have one or more printers listed, you can Option-click the "-" (Remove printer) button.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1341
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Mac OS X: О сброса системы Печать ...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1341?viewlocale=en_US
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http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031215144430486
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Любые устройства, которые ранее появились в списке принтеров и факсов список необходимо будет добавить снова после перезагрузки системы печати.
Сброс системы печати в Mac OS X 10.5.x + + +
1. Для сброса системы печати в Mac OS X 10.5.x, выполните следующие действия:
2. Выберите Системные настройки в меню Apple.
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http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1341
Перезагрузку.

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I figured it out today.You don't have to install any third party software or use any terminal thingy.
Ok
So you launch disk utility and go to restore tab and you drag your dmg file or whatever on the first slot and you can't drag anything into the second one.I want you to drag it from the left hand side, On your desktop for example your usb thumbdrive is call MAC1 but dragging it from desktop to disk utility will not work.I want you to find MAC1 or whatever you use on disk utility on the left and drag it into the box.This will work.You can go on can try restore now@@@@.
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