I always keep a fairly recent copy of Ultimate Boot CD and System Rescue CD around for emergencies. If your main system goes down, you may not be able to download the tools to fix it, so get some before it fails!
I always have enough systems around that I can download one if needed but yes this is a good idea.
Testdisk has succeeded in recovering all my data, by the way. I'll spend some time diff'ing it against what is backed up first before I decide if I can trust it though.