Full featured file recovery cannot be Linux based
The main selling point of those promoting Linux data recovery is that it is free. I must admit this is a drawing card. A DSL Linux application will allow you to enter a hard drive safely and copy files to an external location. If you have every file on your PC memorized this is somewhat viable. But as that is not likely it might be wiser to go behind the scenes of a Blue Screen of Death using a data recovery program that allows you to actually open the files you find. Better yet why not use powerful data recovery tools that support previews of many file types.
If your computer has suffered a logic crash and will need to be reloaded with Windows then you must plan on copying your files to a safe place. But a simple copy function such as that included in Linux will only copy undeleted files. This is not enough.
See also:
Data recovery Atlanta
Free utilities for recovery deleted files from hard drive
Recovering photos from CF disk
Repair dbx file “Outlook Express”
Recover lost Outlook files
DIY data recovery software
Recover files from formatted disc for Mac
Recovering data from drive that has Windows reinstalled
Linux ext2 recovery
Digital Photo Recovery