deleted ALL of my photos! Help!

[duckiegirl]

I had an icon on my desk top that I thought was just a short cut to windows picture gallery, so I put it in the recycling bin, but a message came up saying the recycling bin wasn't big enough so it had to delete everything, I clicked okay. But I guess the icon wasn't a short cut, now ALL of my photos are gone.  Is there anything I can do to get them back?   

[mcxeb52!]

stop using your computer and use system restore to restore back (to an earlier date that you know the pictures existed)

[Broni]

System Restore won't rescue any data.
Try Recuva: http://www.recuva.com/
...and, yes trim your computer use to a minimum, and start recovery right away.

[mcxeb52!]

System Restore won't rescue any data.
Try Recuva: http://www.recuva.com/
...and, yes trim your computer use to a minimum, and start recovery right away.

hmm system restore did recover some lost file for me once. maybe it's not the main purpose....

[Broni]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490854.aspx

System Restore reinstates the registry, local profiles, the COM+ database, the Windows File Protection (WFP) cache (wfp.dll), the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) database, the Microsoft IIS metabase, and files that the utility copies by default into a Restore archive.
[...]
The file types that System Restore monitors are many but include most of the extensions that you typically see when you install new software (e.g., .cat, .com, .dll, .exe, .inf, .ini, .msi, .ole, .sys).