Windows Vista Restore corrupted userprofile

After a system restore I cannot find or access .pdf or jpeg files I had on my desktop or a few folders. My wife's profile is unaffected

Hi and welcome to GeekPolice.

Can you explain your problem a little bit better ? I don't understand all. You had a folder with pictures and PDF files on desktop, after system restore you LOST it or you still have it but you can not open ? Or something else ?

Regards

Thank you for the reply. I had one folder entirely of .pdf files and that folder disappeared entirely, and two other folders that are still there but all the .jpg and .pdf files (most but not all the files that were in these folders) disappeared completely. It is not that I cannot open the files, it is that they no longer appear in explorer window, I cannot locate them.

You probably lost them, because you run System Restore.

It should delete data which is downloaded from Internet, programs which is installed or transferred to computer after period that you check inside System Restore.

These files go back a year or more. I only went back three hours in restore

Ok, there is an option to Recovery your lost data, but first visit and read article at link bellow :
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-CA/olsbgeneral/thread/bbf77066-1ef4-47e9-a43a-da256944206d

Here is a list of Recovery Software which is totally free for use :
http://lifehacker.com/#!5237503/five-best-free-data-recovery-tools

They should help you. Let me know if you get your files back.