Well, did he format the drive on which Windows and other softwares were installed? If yes, then there is no tool to help you out. He probably messed his computer by doing this blindly. I have heard about a software but i don't think it really works. You may want to check it out.
O&O DiskRecovery 4
Try it and see if it works for you or not. Atleast, they state so in the features section that it can "retrieve" or "reconstruct" files from even a formatted hard drive. This is the time to test it. Go ahead and see if it really works. Otherwise, I don't think it is possible to retrieve the lost favourites again. Tell me how it goes. Good Luck.