*nix tools for recovering data

[kerryhall]

Friend's 2.5" hd crapped out, no backups of course.

I have the machine powered off.

What are the steps I should take to recover as much data as possible? Connect it internally to a desktop (might need to buy an adapter for that) or use a usb interface to minimize powered on time?

What are the *nix utils that can scour an ntfs or fat32 filesystem for any signs of life?

Thanks!!

[bluexrider]

Recovery Is Possible (RIP) is a Slackware-based CD or floppy boot/rescue/backup/maintenance system. It has support for a lot of filesystem types (Reiserfs, Reiser4, ext2/3, iso9660, UDF, XFS, JFS, UFS, HPFS, HFS, MINIX, MS DOS, NTFS, and VFAT) and contains a bunch of utilities for system recovery. It also has IDE/SCSI/SATA, PCMCIA, RAID, LVM2, and Ethernet/DSL/cable/PPP/PPPOE network support.

http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-r...looplinux/rip/

You could look at Distrowatch and search for rescue distros