I ran out of space on my SkyDrive so I downloaded all of the contents of my SkyDrive to my local computer.  They came down as a .RAR file.  I browsed the catalog and in every folder found the exact number of files I expected to see.  I tested a few and they worked fine so I proceeded to delete the pictures and videos stored on the SkyDrive.  What I failed to realize is that more than half of the files it downloaded were actually text files with .txt appended to the full file name, like this:
  <filename>.<extention>.txt

Yes, the service actually gave me the exact number of files I had with deceptively similar names for files that failed to download, thus making it hard to tell there were errors at all.  THIS IS EXCEEDINGLY STUPID SERVICE BEHAVIOR!!!!

I then went to the recycle bin and restored all files, but it only restored about 1/3rd of the total files I had on SkyDrive.  This was done within 30 minutes after the initial file deletions.

I would really like to get my family photos and videos back.  They are memories of my kids, my wife, my trips, and my friends.  In other words they are precious to me.  I trusted Microsoft to keep them safe and I got screwed over.  Now I want to get them back.  Any help from anyone is appreciated!!!


Thanks,
Strained