find file

[roadrunner]

good evening all... i finally got my computer back for an unrelated issue and am back online. yay. anyways.. somehow every single picture on this computer has gone some place. not even the sample ones that come with this thing are here. anyways.. where does one go for hard drive recovery of deleted files that doesnt cost $1600? does anyone know anyone that does this kind of thing?

[Xusia]

Your post doesn't fully explain the situation, so I am making some educated guesses. The first thing I would do is search for the missing files in case they are simply located elsewhere (Start menu, then select "Search"). The default setting should search the entire computer (all hard drives), and may take a while. If that fails, you need to decide how serious you are about ATTEMPTING recovery of the missing files. I say attempt because depending on what was done and how it was done, the files may not be recoverable at all and you should be aware of that before starting on the recovery path.

If you decide to attempt recovery I recommend turning the system off until you have someone look at it to prevent accidentally overwriting otherwise recoverable files (and thereby making them unrecoverable). A knowledgeable friend is probably the most economical because data recovery services cost money (as you obviously know) and there is no guarantee of success (which I have hopefully explained well enough).

Good luck!

[roadrunner]

thank you for your response!