retrieving deleted accounts

The data and folders should still be in /Users, unless you chose to not back up the user folder and delete them immediately when you deleted the user account.
 
Yes im talking about retrieving deleted accounts i have chosen to not back up the user folder and delete them immediately when you deleted the user account.
 
In that case, the files are gone -- but the data may not be. Depending on how important the data in those user accounts is should determine whether or not you use the computer at all until the data recovery can be assessed.

While the files may be gone, the data may still be on the hard drive -- but every second you use the computer increases the chances that the data may be overwritten with new data, making the old data impossible to recover.

Try out Data Rescue II: http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php

It may help in recovering some of the data associated with the deleted user accounts. It won't automatically restore the user accounts into Mac OS X, but it will help you retrieve any recoverable data, and you can then manually recreate the user accounts if you so desire.
 
Incase Erase Free Space is checked, does that worsen irreversibly the situation? Or can i even then retrieve the files i want?
 
Where do you see "Erase Free Space" being checked?

The only place I see that is in Disk Utility, and it's a button -- not a checkbox. If you did indeed click that button and allow Disk Utility to erase the free space on your hard drive, then yes, the files and the data are pretty much gone for good.

An easy way to alleviate the problem is to simply restore the user accounts from the backups that you regularly run.
 
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