Doublacola wrote::thumbsup: We had our computer repaired, recently, and to our surprise everything was erased including all our pictures. Thanks to this web site we were able to recapture most of our cargo conversion build. It sure was a relief.
Files on hard drives are not deleted. The directry that shows you that they exist disapears. The only wat to really "erase" them is to overwrite another file on top of them. Most likely, your photos are still there. Unless your hard drive failed and they replaced your drive.
There are lots of software programs out there to recover them. I sense you have a Windows machine and I use a Mac so I can't recommend any software for that purpose. Google "Jpeg file recover software".
I backup my Mac almost nightly since I do a bit of writing and can't afford a crash like you had.
Good luck.
Tony