deleted files

once you delete files from the hard drive they are gone for good

sorry.

Actually, it isn't the end of the world!

As long as you havn't written too much to the hard-disk since then, the files ARE recoverable. When you empty the recycle bin, it simply marks the file saying that it can be overwritten later. This is how many criminals are caught; they think they've deleted the files, but in actual fact they can very easily be recovered using the appropriate software...

Which, alas, I don't know the names of. I think Norton Utilities has a feature for this...

norton utilities can get them back- but install it as soon as possible- the more you use your pc the greater the chance the files will be over written-------

If the data is that valuable, it may be possible to recover some or all of it. Here is a link to a program that recovers deleted files. I believe the free trial just shows what could be recovered it will not do the actual recovery; for that you need to pay the company that wrote the software. Programs like this are not cheap. They can run into the hundreds of dollars.
http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecovery/