Windows 7: "My Pictures" folder disappeared! PLEASE HELP!!!

please help!!! i have a TON of pictures saved to my computer in the "My Pictures" folder. i was cleaning out my computer today & all of a sudden, when i went back to "My Documents", the "My Pictures" folder was gone (all it will show is the "Public Pictures" folder)! i panicked & looked in the "Recycle Bin". nothing.

if i go to the "Start Menu" & search "My Pictures", i think some of my pictures come up, but not in any designated folder. @ least they*re all still there though.

what should i do? should i try to save them all & make a new "My Pictures" folder (which i heard doesn*t work b/c the "My Pictures" name is already recognized), or is there an easier way to restore my folder (i already tried the "restore" option, but since i don*t do the windows back-up, there were no "shadow copies" to restore. i do have a USB passport, but there are some recent pictures that i just put on the comp today that aren*t on the passport)?

sorry for the overload of info; just trying to be as helpful as i can. hope somebody can help me- i think i*m in the right place. any & ALL advice welcome- please & thanks a million<3!!!

They may have been hidden. Click on Control Panel from start orb, now 'Folder Options', View tab ... scroll down and check "unhide hidden files and folders", and uncheck "Hide extentions for known types of files".

i also tried the "hidden folders" option. nothing. i wonder what i did to make this happen? hm..

thanks, jacee<3! i already tried that, but i forgot to mention it before- oops.

Looks like you deleted it. The folder may have been too big for the recycle bin and be deleted immediately.

Too bad you did not enable system restore. From the shadows we could have recovered it with Shadow Explorer (not with system restore because that does not restore user files, only system files).

For the furure, you better make frequent backups of your stuff to an external disk. You fly without a parachute.

thanks, whs<3. i happened to be looking for an avatar for here & noticed that my pictures are all still saved, but now as .JPGs. can a folder be deleted if it gets too big? i never knew that. good to know! i*m a photography lover & picture hoarder, so that explains a lot. why would a file be deleted without your permission, though? very stressful!

my pictures are all saved now as .jpgs & .gifs .. i wonder if this has something to do with the whole situation..

Well good, at least you got them. But in the future enable system restore and make backups - better even images.

do i need a disc to do that, or will windows just save it? also, does it cost any money? thanks for all the info!

For backups or images you should have an external disk. Here is a tutorial regarding images: Imaging with free Macrium The program is free. System restore (shadows) go on your disk. The system writes them automatically when enabled.