Try doing an advanced search by going to: start>search> in the top right corner click on advanced search, by default vista searches only indexed locations and even though you may have changed the option in tools>folder options>view>show hidden files and folders it won't show hidden files and folders in search results unless you change the option when you search. In "location" change the default search from "indexed locations" to either "c:" if you know that the files are on the main disk or "local hard drives" to search all of your disks or "computer" to search the entire computer (just in case you don't remember where the files are located) and then in the area where the search criteria is look under the location, date, size etc. and you will see another option check the box "include non-indexed, hidden and system files (might be slow) then type the name(or partial name) of the file. You can also adjust the size, date etc. if you want to, but I wouldn't, this should help you locate the files.
