Windows Backup Overwrote All Files?

For a few years my wife has resisted using any kind of backup solution � even the built-in Windows backup. She has simply made her own backups on the root of an external drive. She simply copies all the files she wants to backup into a folder with the same name as her computer. G:/COMPUTER_NAME/.

Well, yesterday, she decided to start using Windows backup to simplify her life.

I've used Windows backup for years, but when we set up her machine, I was unaware that she had this folder called "COMPUTER_NAME". Well, perhaps you've guessed, Windows backup created it's backup on the root of the drive, calling it "COMPUTER_NAME".

She cried for hours, fearing that 10 years of family photos she's taken are gone forever (they were saved in the folder "G:/Computer_name", but they were not part of her local computer files, and therefore, not saved in the "computer_name" backup file created by Windows).

My first thought was to use some Photo/File recovery program. But after sleeping on the problem, it occurs to me that perhaps the files aren't really gone, since the folder had the same name, perhaps Windows did not overwrite the directory's structure and files, though because the name of the directory and the name of the backup file are the same, the directory is simply not accessible.

best way to try and restore the directory (before trying photo/file restoration programs).