I accidentally deleted important pictures in my digital Nikon Coolpix L3 camera, did they fade in oblivion? I work with this almost daily. First off- if you have not formatted your card since you deleted them, then they can be recovered.
There are many different kinds of file recovery software out there and many that are free to have or at least try out. Either do a search for file recovery software in a search engine or try C-net downloads. Or if you have a local camera store in town, bring it to them- they usually have file recovery software in store and can do it for you (usually for a small fee, but it is worth it most times depending on what you are trying to recover). Some memory cards do have either pre-loaded recovery software or software that comes with the card- so you might want to check your card brand's website first to see if that applies.
Do not believe people who tell you that you cannot continue taking any pictures on your card. It is not true. The files are "written over"- that part is true to an extent- but they are still there and can be recovered in whole! I have recovered years of pictures- all because they were just deleted on the camera and the card was not formatted. I found a picture of my dog from 3 months ago that I had deleted and had taken about 500 pics since. I have never had a problem recovering things unless that card has been formatted since the deletion.
Also- deleting pictures on the camera is perfectly safe. Camera manufacturers would not continue to put a trash function on their cameras if there were any problems with it or if it caused damage. The problem is with cheap cards. I see more card failures and file recoveries for the cheaper cards than with any other. The first thing you should know, deleting images from the card while in the camera is not a good strategy. Doing that can cause the image index to become corrupt. Then images that are on the card will not show up.
Always copy your images (all of them, good bad and ugly) to your computer and then format the card in your camera.
Now for your problem: There are programs that will recover images on your memory card. Some card makers include a recovery program with the card. I know this isn't helping much but it's best to save them to your comp first. go to yahoo search
type photo rescue | 