...and NOT just "data recovery software", but software with such functions as being able to recover data from damaged partitions, corrupted hard drives, and also recovering RAW files, among other things.

I'm looking for such free software, since the ones that I have tried, so far, only allow you to evaluate the features, yet they force you to purchase it yourself if you want to actually recover any data, yet I'm trying extremely hard to save money, at least at the moment, so it's not going to be easy to really purchase anything, since I don't have the adequate rights over my own money (and I'm NOT going into detail either, so please, don't ask me what's going on).

I've found a free edition of one such package, and I'm going to try it tomorrow, along with the other packages, but if I can't find a free package that works, then I'll have to purchase it.

Also, this is the same hard drive that I've been talking about earlier (the Conner Peripherals CABO 540 MB model, CFS541A, manufactured under the Seagate brand name however, since Seagate purchased Conner before it was manufactured, with the Seagate model number being ST541A). The partition is damaged, yet from what I've read online, the data can still be recovered from it using these utilities.

Good luck WinPC, I needed that kind of service a little time ago. I tried everything, but in the end I paid a data recovery corporation to recover everything. They done a great job, the NTFS partition was VERY corrupted. The price was USD 115 approx.

Well, if I can't find anything that does the job for free, then I'll most likely have to pay about $90 dollars for such a product, which is not great (at least not in my case), but it would have to do if it was the absolute only reliable hope, especially since my birthday (February 23rd) is near, meaning that theoretically, I could at least use my birthday money (well, some of it anyway) to pay for such a purchase.

However, I've found at least one utility's "Free Edition" (as mentioned in my above post), and after I evaluate the locked down suite that I'm currently on, I'll also try the other one, and possibly even the EASEUS free version, though that might require upgrading from Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 2 (on the spare hard drive that I'm using to run the data recovery utilities, that is, and NOT any of my primary system's Windows installations).

If you can pay, I recommend GetDataBack ($69/FAT, $79/NTFS). A Windows-using friend erm... "loaned" me his copy when I needed to get some data from a FAT Micro-SD card, I later bought it because of how helpful it was.

Maybe MiniTool Power Data Recovery? The free version allows to recover 1Gb of data.

@winpc. I had this problem at the beginning of the year and needed to recover 500gb from a external drive. I had luckily read about a piece of software called testdisk in a copy of a computer magazine called MicroMart (UK). The software is free and allowed me to recover all 500gb from my corrupted drive. Drive was being read as a raw partition. I copied everything over with only 3 files not copied but these were files that I didn't need as they could easily be redownloaded. Once i copied everything needed of the drive i ran chkdsk on the drive and it returned the raw partition back to ntfs with no lose of data. I did the copy as a precaution just incase i needed to start the drive from fresh.

TestDisk is made for partition repairing. PhotoRec is the piece of software that actually recovers the files.
Here are both.
Be careful to not write the recovered data to the same partition you're recovering, otherwise you will overwrite the data you're recovering, and you will lose it.

I have used Testdisk to recover and copy files from a damaged partition(RAW), I only suggested this as it was free which is what the OP was looking for.

Have you tried the utilities on the ultimate boot cd?

Can i burn something like the ultimate boot CD from an older mac to repair my XPSP3 booting BSOD?

Yes. Burn it through Disk Utility and you'll be good.

Kernel for Windows Data Recovery is one such effective data recovery tool that has got the capability e of recovering and restoring files/folders lost after accidental deletion, virus attack or any other kind of logical error to access the data. In fact, the software makes a proper use of recovery algorithm that helps in restoring every single bit of lost information. Besides this, the tool is also very much capable of retrieving data even when MFT is damaged.

I had managed to retrieve files from formatted hard drive with Tenorshare Data Recovery. If needed, you can give it a shot!

However, Tenorshare, as far as I know, is NOT free, but only allows certain functionality to be used without paying for it. No offence, but I think that you should make sure that you don't confuse "completely free" and "free download".

No offence, the program you mentioned "Easeus" and a program memtioned by the other "Kernel for Windows Data Recovery" is not free, too.

I have tried a free program called Recuva. Works pretty well I think... There are a few options out there.

Well, as of now, I'm still working with iCare Data Recovery (unless you purchase it, you can only view the files themselves; you can't actually recover them), allowing it to run more and more over time (I hit 800 sectors just yesterday, interestingly enough, also the same day as my birthday, offtopic, I know). However, I will try all of the other utilities that were mentioned here, that is, unless I find already find a free utility that works.