PhotoRec and TestDisk seem to be the tools most often used. The problem is "the usual" one ... I can't recover the partition or its directory (tried debugfs with no luck) but I can recover a buttload of files, thousands of them (~1700 directories with 500 files each), mostly filled with log files from updates and such, but with all filenames lost. Just trying to delete, say, all .html files gets me an "arguments list too long" error. I need a recovery method that extracts info from the files automagically, and scalpel (maybe some later programs built on top of it ? anybody know ?) seems to offer a way to do that. I still don't know if it will work with the files I want most -- they were created by a "niche" program, and don't have standard extensions.
BTW, I've booted this computer off a separate partition, so live CD's and boot CDs aren't really needed. The partition happened to have Scientific Linux on it -- not my first choice, but I tried it out a few months ago and it was still on the partition. And yes, I know to keep the corrupted disk unmounted to prevent further data loss. I have about three weeks to work on this before I will have to start rerunning a job over from scratch rather than trying to recover the checkpoint file, and a few weeks after that before there's no further point at all, so I'm taking the time to explore my options thoroughly.
For anyone in a similar situation, a good starting point is https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery . Note scalpel is one of the options listed, but instructions for most are minimal, eg: "Use any data carving tool to search the output image for files." Well, data carving tools is what I'm trying to find. Instructions tend to be written at the level of veteran file system gurus, which doesn't help me much. Something with a simple point-and-click interface and multiple undelete options, like the old Norton Utilities for Macintosh would be great -- that was from what, 1990 ? 
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