Without the pub file I think it's called starting over from scratch.

Maybe using a file restore program could resurrect it from the hard drive.
All that is needed is the pub file and it will recreate the gif files. A
pretty good program for recovering files is drive rescue.  Download to a
floppy and run it from a floppy.  Don't disturb the data on the hard drive
for it may overwrite the pub file.

You can get drive rescue at:

http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32/driverescue19d.html