Updated iPad2 to iOS 6 and lost all pictures and videos

Question

I updated my roomate's iPad 2 days ago, following the instructions of a friend with years of Apple experience.
He explained that I would need to install iTunes on my laptop (a newer Asus running Win7) and that just plugging the iPad in would start an automatic process of backing up and updating.
Being from the PC world, I wanted to make sure we would be safe. I asked if I needed to copy pictures to my laptop or pc first, and he said that iTunes defaults to backing up first, then running the update.
Of course this makes sense, but erring on caution, I was very specific in wanting to make absolutely sure.
So I get the laptop ready. I plug in the iPad, it's immediately discovered and a window pops up saying there is an update for the iPad, and would I like to update now.
I pressed the button yes, or ok, I don't remember exactly what the vernacular was.
The lengthy process began.... with a status bar and activity..... took about 20 minutes.
After it was done, it said so. I don't remember the dialog box wording at that point exactly.
I pushed the home button on the iPad and it had the normal grey lock screen, opened it, and all of her apps were there, her email showed she had email,
but when i looked in the pictures folder, it was empty.
Thought perhaps they would appear later from iTunes. ( I didn't know at this point that she had never backed up or used iTunes for anything other than the initial activation and for her old iPhone that died several months ago)
Called my Apple friend, he said maybe I unplugged the iPad before it was able to restore things to the iPad.
So I started iTunes, attached the iPad , right clicked on "Tiffany's ipad" and went into the Backup section. There it says that the iPad was never backed up on this computer in bold text. And the option to restore from backup is grayed out.
I call my expert friend again. He has me look for backup files on the laptop, utilizing an application called 'iExplore'. went to 'device' section and there is a box that will show all backup files found on the pc. That box was empty.
What's tragic, is, this poor lady, unbeknownst to me, had been using her iPad as a picture and video dump for ALL of her child's pictures and vids for over a year. Without telling me. She is not a technical person.
Had I known this, I would have backed it up manually myself, before the update and all along. I would have made her do it. But I had no idea. I assumed she was plugging it in to her Dell Laptop.. but she never did.
I've run 2 'recovery' programs I got from online that scan for deleted files, but they don't show any of the hundreds of pictures and videos she had, Im sure because it was wiped, not deleted. 
All attempts to locate a large backup file on my laptop have come up empty.
She is extremely and unbelievably broken up about this, as am I. I'm furious with Apple for not making the BACKUP stage of the process more tenacious, and with more pop up warnings so that this kind of thing cannot happen. Had I seen that, I would have used an application to MANUALLY copy her stuff.... even though at the time I had NO IDEA she was using her iPad as her ONLY repository for all of her precious media.
Folks, this is a life changing horror for her, and me. I love this woman's little boy as my own, and as a single mom, she was depending on me as a friend in this matter. If I cannot retrieve these images and vids, I fear she will never forgive me, as I'm the 'tech guy' who always has had the answers for everything in the past, and failed her on the most important tech issue in her life, her little boy's life in pictures.
Please, where can I send this iPad for forensic recovery of these images.
I've powered the iPad down until further notice to avoid writing additionally on the internal flash memory.
Thanks,
Lu Johnson

Answer 1

Doesn't sound like you have iCloud? If not, then no, you are out of luck....
GB