What's a good file recovery program?

[DaedalCipher]

One day last my hard drive just crapped out on me and I got the blue screen of death. Had to install windows on my other drive, though this one has a lot of important crap that I need off and I was too stupid to back up. Shows up in bios on both my and a friend's computer, as either master or slave, but not in windows.

I had my girlfriend's computer babysitting this important stuff a month or so ago while I did an upgrade, and she still has about 8 gigs free on her hd, so I'm thinking with a good recovery program I might be able to get at least some of the stuff back.

Free downloads are obviously preferable, but I'm willing to buy something if I can be convinced it will actually work. You guys and gals have any ideas? Thanks in advance

 

[forsakenseraph]

file scavenger, but it costs $$

 

[rasczak]

try using a livecd such as ubuntu livecd or barts pe. I'm usually able to get data using that method.

 

[Mavtech]

I've had good luck with Acronis Disk Director.

 

[DaedalCipher]

those sound good. thanks for the suggestions