(For links to all of these downloads in one convenient place, see our .)

Recovering a file that a user has simply deleted is a relatively easy thing to accomplish programming-wise, which is why you can find dozens of undelete utilities around. My favorite is Piriform's (free, donationware), which is stylish and easy to use. It's also available in a . In addition, Recuva offers sector-based recovery.

What is sector-based recovery? When a hard drive crashes, or a PC produces error messages, or you can't boot into the operating system, you need something stronger than a mere undelete utility. If the crashed drive shows up in the Windows Disk Management console, and is still spinning and not making funny noises, you may be able to retrieve your data with one of the sector-based utilities below. It will probably cost you, though: All of these free demos will show you what they can recover, but you'll have to pay to get more than a minimal amount of data back.

Note: Never install a sector-based recovery utility on the hard drive or partition from which you're trying to recover data. You might overwrite the data.

If you have a recent backup and need to recover only one file (say, an important presentation you worked on all night), turn to ($70; free demo). The demo version will recover a single file for you--no matter the size. Data Recovery Wizard is also arguably the easiest recovery program to use, as it walks you step-by-step through the process.