Recovering lost desktop files?

[Befuddled]

Yesterday we got a laptop in to swap files over to a new one. It was mailed to us, and wouldn't show icons or the task bar after start up, just a blank screen. The only way to get in was through safe mode, and from there we couldn't do what we needed to. On a lark, we installed SE over the top of SE and that didn't solve the problem. On advice from a tech support line, we deleted some of the "Windows" folder.
Now, it turns out that this woman had "vital" data in folders only on her desktop.
Is there anyway ay all I can recover these missing files? I'm fairly sure the answer is "no" but I'd like to make sure before I throw myself to the lions.
Thanks.

[shawnMt]

Not sure what you mean by "lost." Could you see the folders/files in safe mode? What about DOS? I had a guy once who had a folder on his desktop called "Desktop" - that was fun.

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Cannot find REALITY.SYS. Universe halted

Paint your old laptop! (http://www.auwebdesign.com/shawnpages)

[Befuddled]

Well, when we installed 98 over the top, it seemed to overwrite the desktop, Outlook Express etc. We can not find the files or her dbx etc files from Outlook..or more exactly the Outlook files are empty and the others seem to be gone.

[shawnMt]

When you reinstalled - are you sure you installed to the Windows directory and not Windows.000?

95 and 98 will try to install to this dir sometimes.

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Cannot find REALITY.SYS. Universe halted

Paint your old laptop! (http://www.auwebdesign.com/shawnpages)

[Damned Angel]

Did you check to make sure that active desktop and hide icons when desktop viewed as a webpage was not enabled?