Pictures Have Disappeared From Pictures Library

Hi all.

I was experiencing an issue with my windows desktop where an account was acting funny while logging in. (This is not the issue I'm asking for help with.) After looking at a few fixes I gave up on the issue and decided to create a new user account and simply transfer my necessary stuff over manually.

After transferring each of the folders from the users directory of the old account to the users directory of the new account I found that the new account was having the same issue. (Again, this user account issue is not the subject of this post.)

I then proceeded to try deleting all the newly made copies for the new account and transferring select folders, hoping to see which caused the issue.

Now, getting to the actual issue.

I realized at some point that I could no longer access the old user directory folders when logged into the old user account. It said I did not have access to that, as though I were accessing another user's files. I assumed this was because I had changed the username of the old account. I tried changing it back to no avail. I then entered the administrator password forcing the computer to let me into the pictures directory. It was somehow empty. Before this it held multiple gigabytes of pictures.

I looked around all available user account directories to make sure I hadn't moved or misplaced the files. Nothing.

So, I thought that perhaps in all the moving and deleting I may have somehow deleted the whole directory and it was automatically replaced with a blank folder. So I installed and ran Recuva. I tried multiple scans, some specifically in the general user directory or individual picture folder, and some across the whole hard drive. I also made sure to conduct 'deep scans'. This did not turn up a single picture that should have been there.

I am left wondering if I somehow cut that entire pictures folder off from the accessible directories. Perhaps in changing the username, trying to access pictures, and changing it back, I forced the pictures directory to be pointed at a new space, leaving the old folder and files floating in the hard drive somewhere... I have no idea.

Recap:
- Lost my pictures.
- Not in any other user directories.
- Recuva can't find anything.
- Searching the hard drive from the administrator account for file names that originally resided in this pictures folder also turns up nothing.

Thanks, guys.

- Michael