I personally think that 'thumb drives' and digital cameras are the BEST inventions of the 21st century. When you clean house, through all those files onto a thumb drive. You can pick up a 2GB flash drive for $10 bucks these days. So worth the money!

Your pictures are not gone for ever they can be recovered. If you don't understand computers then ask those who know how it works. I have been computing for over 20 years and have recovered my images when the computer has crashed or things getting deleted by accident. You don't need to add the pictures back as they are still on the hard drive. Images are stored on in what they call the picture vault. It is not easy to get to the vault and I don't know if you can fallow directions good enough to go into it and restore your images from directions! If you are looking for pity well.....listen to what people are trying to tell you!

That's so sad. My computer crash once and my machine embroidery was on it and family pics. I took it to computer store and they were able to get them back. Maybe they could help you. It cost 50.00 but well worth it. Hope they come home.

let us know if you found them

I once deleated almost all of the photos on the SD card to my camera! They were pics of our first and only (so far cruise!) Thanks to Kim Komando I was able to retrieve them!

Kim Komando has a web site with daily tips and is full of computer tech related information.

Do not download anything else onto your computer!!! until you have exhausted any and all attempts to retrieve your 'lost' work.

Like others have said - it's still there somewhere.

Good luck.

I never thought of putting them on my thumb drive <hanging head in shame> :oops:

I ran a recovery program but sadly I wasn't able to retrieve anything. The files were too damaged. Oh well, I can get the patterns back and I don't think there were that many photos lost. So, all is well. But I WILL back up externally OFTEN!!!!

Thanks for all your suggestions. It truly helped.

are the files still in your trash basket??? they should be. look there!

nope. I know computers pretty well and when I delete.....I delete.

I'm not going to stress anymore about it. Too many other more important things happening with my family. This is minimal. But I DID learn a valuable lesson :(

I'm with ya mzsooz, I learned how to permanantly delete stuff...like my ex's porn files. I tell ya I never saw a man get so mad and look so ashamed at the same time.