Corrupt save, delete?

[chucksterock]

So I screwed up and since I hadn't saved recently, I renamed the persistent file to persistentMunBoom and grabbed the most recent KAC ship change file, sorry I've forgotten the proper name, and renamed it to persistent. Something I've successfully done in the past to correct a big boom in the game. Well, this time upon restart I get a message saying there is a corrupt save, do I want to delete it? At first I don't, but the save won't open properly. So foolishly I agree to let it delete the bad without really knowing what it will do. It totally deleted the entire save directory including all files and sub-directories. OMG! Not what I expected and digging around, the directories and files are not in the Recycle Bin where I could rescue them. I get I should have at least made backups even if I was getting cocky about getting better at the game. Any thoughts on if those files can be found, or am I starting over?

[ExplorerKlatt]

There isn't anyway to recover those files if they aren't in the recycle bin, unfortunately.