Before you do anything to that hard disk, it's usually possible to restore files stored in a contiguous block, and possibly even fragmented ones, depending how much of a number your friend did on the file system; google "hard disk recovery" and a bit of searching should find you something appropriate. The more data you write to that hard disk now, however, the less you'll be able to get back so I'd suggest you stop using it immediately, don't even turn the computer on, and preferably remove the disk and run said software from another machine. You won't get everything, most of those programs have trouble with fragmented files when the filesystem's been rewritten (they search for known headers then read a block) and I'm guessing it will have been, but some has to be better than none. Next time... remember to back up regularly and obsessively. I like to take the approach that my thesis is out to destroy my life by corrupting itself or murdering the hard disks in my office machine. As such, I back the thing up to as many computers as I own as often as the thought of losing the changes I've made terrifies me. So about every 4 hours.

You're the incompetent one.

This is on you as well. Honestly, you should've backed up anything you considered too important to lose.

Take it to a pro and they might be able to salvage something :-)

Can't even begin to count the number of times I heard stories like this everyday when I worked in computers. But everybody "has a friend that's really good with computers". Oddly enough I was never surprised when things like this happened.

All is not lost. Just because a hard drive was formatted or the files were "deleted" (to the Recycle Bin) does NOT mean that the data is gone. Look at a program called Piriform Recuva and try to recover your data. There are other paid programs that do an even better job, but I've had plenty of success with Recuva after an "accidental" wipe/delete. Oh and, once you recover your data, learn your lesson. There's a saying in the computer world: "If you don't have at least 3 backups of your data than you must not care about it very much". If it happens again, it's 100% YDI.

Am I the only person left that can make computers work? **** this shit world.

I'm sorry, but I have to say you deserved it. It sucks, yes, but if those photos were so valuable to you, why, why, why, WHY didn't you back them up? External hard drives are a very cheap investment, and would have saved you the loss you are now suffering. Sucks, but YDI.

always backup your files if they are important you never know when your computer may go bad. next time go to a professional even of it cost money

I'm backing up backing up backing up backing up... cus my daddy taught me good, and I'm backing the hell out of there, and I'm like oh my god, oh my god my god.... anyone else sing this in their head when reading these comments? No? You should spend more time on YouTube then.