Data recovery software

Ok, so mom ended up reinstalling the OS on her laptop after Vista SP2 corrupted the boot sector. During the reinstall (expanding files specifically) she called me to ask how she could get here data back (it was not backed up). I told her to stop whatever the computer was doing and send me the laptop. I have the HDD pulled but I need a piece of software that will allow me to recover the files (they're nonexistant in windows explorer). I am pretty sure that some of here data is intact because she did not zero the drive. Theoretically, the OS files during the second install would reside in the same physical location on the HDD as the original OS files. Only if she wrote a bunch of data to the drive would the data be permanently lost.

So can anyone point me to a piece of software that will do what I need it to do? Thanks a bunch in advance.

I suggest recuva from piriform.

getdataback from runtime.org

Getdataback as dbwillis stated is known to give great results.

I have used Zero Assumtion Recovery (ZAR) many times successfully.

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/

So far I have tried Recuva and Active@ file and partition recovery. No luck yet. Any other suggestions? I am thinking that I am going to revert back to when she got a new computer a few months ago, those HDDs are still intact.

ZAR will do it. I have recovered files from a HDD with a fragged MBR and partitions, and also from a formatted drive. It was well worth the $30.

GetDataBack for NTFS has saved me many times over. Great little product.

I just tried recuva on Server 2008 R2 with a RAID 5 array, I accidentally deleted a whole bunch of staff, it works a treat!

For the times that neither Recuva nor GetDataBack for NTFS worked, R-Studio has been an amazing alternative.