I use it all the time on removable media, not hard drives. It finds and fixes some things VERY well...and there are some issues (like a corrupt FAT) where a simple scandisk blows it away.
Norton codes their products like microsoft does...it gets the job done but it's bloatware (IMHO).
Don't buy a dang thing! Download their demo and see it it finds anything first. Buy the software that finds the most "good luvin'" on your platters.
I think Lost & Found (ver. 1.06?) is being given away free right now. Not a bad program, but DOS based (a good thing in your case...no fragging swap file re-writing the data you're trying to recover).
www.powerquest.com used to have it, not anymore I'm afraid. See if you can download it form another site (not advocating illegal software here). Maybe tucows...a google search turned up a bunch of information.
Iomega professional data recovery centers use Lost & Found (and they're busy too, heard about "Click of Death"?)
Good Luck and welcome aboard.