Vista - "Recently Changed" folder - files deleted

I will try my best to control my anger here:

Today I stumbled upon the "Recently Changed" folder, and believing that it
contained only shortcuts (because the top few windows of approx. 3000 files
were all shortcuts), I decided to do a little "housecleaning" and performed
a "Select All" > "Delete" on the files in the folder. Well, as you surely
know, I deleted a lot more than shortcuts from the folder - including about
80 original photos from a family reunion last weekend (no lecture about
backing up, please - the pictures were loaded onto the computer only minutes
before they were deleted). While I have a HUGE issue with the fact there was
no warning about deleting the files (as when deleting to the Recycle Bin),
my immediate concern is whether or not I might be able to recover any of the
lost files. I did download a copy of PC Tools recovery software and ran a
scan with that, which indicated the condition of the photos was "poor", even
though there is about 90% free space on my hard drive. I would gladly have
purchased the software, allowing me to "recover" the deleted files, but it
seemed pointless to pay money to recover files in "poor" condition (whatever
"poor" actually means).

So, I am writing this in desperation, hoping that someone out there might
know how I can recover my pictures and other important files. Is there
software that actually works? Or am I doomed?

PS. If and when I do recover my files, I'm still going to be VERY angry
that it was so easy to delete files without ANY warning! (Just a little
Googling seems to indicate that Microsoft has known about this problem for
quite a while.)

Thanks very much for any and all help!

Roy Blye

Hi Roy,

Restoration: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html
Free and works very well. You will need a second drive or volume to recover
the files to.

As to why it happened, the "recently changed" feature simply is a tool that
enumerates recently accessed files and lists them for you. It's not a folder
or collection of shortcuts, but you know that now. I am curious as to why
you were unable to recover them from the recycle bin - or did you empty that
without checking?

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

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