Is there a good freeware program available for file recovery?

(PS: I am aware that when a computer deletes a file or folder, it simply replaces the first character of that file or folder with an "@" symbol, and that means the space occupied by the file or all the files in a folder is available to be overwritten. So, as long as I don't write over those files, they are still retrievable by simply changing that "@" symbol to something else in the file or folder name. I just wanted people to know that I already know this so that I don't get everyone telling me not to write anything more to that memory stick. I already know not to.)

I used my digital camera to take a bunch of pictures in an apartment that a tenant left filthy and damaged, and I stored all those pictures on a memory stick. Then, I used the Move command instead of the Copy command to move those pictures onto a CD so that I could use them to support my claim against the tenant's damage deposit. I was concerned that if I used the Copy command, I'd lose track of which ones had been moved and which hadn't, and I'd end up missing some.

Well, just as you'd expect, I got some kind of an error message while the files were being moved, and the end result was that the directory the files were in on the memory stick is no longer there to click on. That directory is available for clicking on on the destination CD ROM, but when I double click on any picture to view it, I get "Preview not available".

So, I've spent the past two evenings trying various file recovery programs that offer "free trials". I've downloaded a program called Free Undelete which is supposedly freeware, and it would claim to have found the files in the directory on the memory stick, and reports they are all in good condtion, but I simply can't get it to display or save those files somewhere else so that I can access them.

I downloaded another file recovery program, and this time I copied some files onto a floppy and deleted one of them just so that I could practice with the program to learn how to use it. The program couldn't find that deleted file on the floppy!

Does anyone know of a freeware or shareware file recovery program that works well that I can use to recover the files on this memory stick? I don't want to buy a $100program I'm probably never gonna use again (cuz from now on I'm gonna Copy, Confirm and then Delete instead of MOVE important files.)