Webcam photos gone! how do i get them back?

my webcam was "saving" a bunch of pictures on the actual webcam itself, quite efficiently, i might add. today i went to go use one of them and they were all gone, deleted, poof! i think my webcam just spazzed out and deleted them or something. does anyone know how to retrieve these images or am i doomed? it really makes me sad that i didn't think to save them all in "my pictures" and i would love to somehow get them all back. thanks for the help!