Settings and Data Recovery

[Computing Gran]

Hi

I posted my initial problems -HFS volume needs repair and question about recovering data in Anything Goes - obviously the wrong place, but did get help anyway.

I have done a startup fron the install disks and used DU. The report is the HFS is repaired.

But I still don't have any of the original settings in Mac applications (Mail, iPhoto, iTunes, Address Book, Safari, etc) The applications I've loaded still have the right settings.

Question 1 - is there any way to get settings back?
Question 2 - is there a free/inexpensive data recovery software I can download and is it any good?

Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions.

Gran