Sysinternals suite (1=included in this suite) a great set of tools by Sysinternals (so great that MS bought them).Spinrite low level hard disk recovery (89$).Hard Drive Manufacturers diagnostic tools: fujitsu / hitachi / samsung / western digital / seagate (maxtor).alt: Memtest86+ RAM tester (don't need command line).Stresslinux minimal linux with tools to monitoring hardware health: stress, cpuburn, hddtemp, lm_sensors, memtest86+.

alt: Ophcrack (sort-of) brute-force windows password (if they are EFS encrypted files).

Offline NT Password & Registry Editor reset windows password.

If you're a student, may be available to you through MSDNAA. Only available to Software Assurance and MSDN subscribers, as part of the Desktop Optimization Pack.

alt: Microsoft Emergency Repair Disk: a system rescue disk PE environment with advanced recovery tools like resetting passwords, hard drive repair, offline registry editing, file explorer, command prompt, etc.

Ubcd4win create a (custom) live cd that contains software used for repairing, restoring, or diagnosing almost any computer problem.

If it's an alternative, please don't replace mine, add a sub-list started by 'alt:' and say why do you prefer this one. Note: feel free to add your tools to my list.

Nirsoft nirlauncher malware