Windows ME lost My Documnets

A Gateway PC with WIN ME had a problem so ME was reinstalled from the CD. The PC was not formatted prior to the reinstall of ME. Reinstall worked fine, only problem is the files that were in My Documents are gone. Gateway says they can recover the files if the PC is shipped to them and it will cost $79 per file. This is too expensive. If Gateway can get to the files they must just be hidden. Does anyone have any ideas?