Hi. Yesterday I was clearing up useless files, and while doing so, I deleted the "Skyrim" folder from "My Games" because I thought it was one of the numerous backup files I have stored in that same folder. I also cleared out my 50GB recycle bin. It's as if everything was poised to get rid of my saves.

I realized this when I launched the game, and the game automatically created a new Skyrim folder (the importance of this comes in later).

So what I did: try system restore; this did not work. My computer, for some reason, has decided to delete any and all previous restore points, including ones I had manually made.

What I did next: install recovery software. I tried two different softwares, and both found many of the files I had removed from the recycle bin. The Skyrim saves were not among those files. Could this be linked with the fact that Skyrim created a duplicate of that same file in my My Games folder? And that is why the program cannot find the one that I deleted from the recycle bin?

Lastly: is there any other method in existence to recover those saves?

Yes: Recuva

I'm afraid your saves are long gone, sorry

Hope something like Recuva like deaths_soul suggested helps!

There's a chance. It's imperative that action is taken immediately, however.

When Windows deletes a file, it simply tells the system not to associate a value with the pointer and that that sector is now available to be overwritten. The data is still physically on the drive until it is overwritten by the system as it needs that area for free space. Then, and only then, is the data removed.

Therefore, it becomes possible to recover all, or at least part, of the files that have been deleted from the system.

Okay, I cast some witchcraft and got the saves. I am too close but it is teasing me!

Now when I try to load them I get "The save game cannot be loaded because it is out dated. Version number is 0 and the current version is 9".

And when I bring my cursor over them I just get this scratchy image. I have the saves, they just won't work!

A few do not give me this message, but rather just refuse to load; the game stops responding.