Well, technically, he you do have a point. 75 bucks for a one-time use program only does sound too much for the average person. Unless you're really rich or something and you can really afford it, why not? Otherwise however, i would suggest you try this site... http://www.snapfiles.com. That site has a lot of useful tools for you to recover data from situations such as yours. Of course, i agree with what all the other people have said earlier, dont install any new programs. They might overwrite your valuable files. Since you didnt use a secure deletion tool, your files should still be there...a bit fragmented of course, but they should still be there...unless they've allready been overwritten. Hopefully though, that wont be the case...so just give that site i suggested a try. You might get lucky. Good luck!