I was recently stunned to find that the R-09 "formatting" procedure is actually NOT formatting. Normally a formatting device for flash cards "flushes" the card, so that there's no data left in the end. What the R-09 firmware does to SD cards has nothing to do with that. It just alters the SD's registry/log file that describes what's in. The data are left unchanged.
If you still don't believe me do the following experiment : format an SD full of data with your R-09 then try to recover the files with a good recovery utility, like Easy recovery or any other good soft. You'll get your show back.
This is a life-saving procedure, and I guess a last-resort option for nxb's problem:
1) get a really good recovery soft ;
2) try recovering "as is" with the soft ;
3) if that fails, re-format the card from within the R-09 (not usually advised!) That will correct a possibly corrupted registry/log file, and finally
4) try recovering anew.