IPhone – restore lost photos fron backup

This sounds like somehow your iPhoto Library has moved. If you hold down ALT when you click to start iPhoto, the library management dialog comes up. This will tell you where iPhoto is currently located. If you somehow had access to your old HDD, you could see where this was located.

Obviously iPhoto doesn't work without a library, so the library has to be somewhere. I would certainly dig a little to see if you could find it.

_{Unfortunately, I haven't worked with HDD recovery at all. I do know there are companies that do this. You could potentially send it it. I'll update or comment if I do find something.}

Probably you didn't transfer your purchased apps to iTunes before you restored the phone. Under normal circumstances you would have gotten a warning message about this. Look under Applications in iTunes, check the iPhone tab and see if your apps are listed there, if not they are not backed up. If you have connected your iTunes software with your iPhone Apple account the apps should sync automatically.

Only way to get them back otherwise is to go to Appstore and download them again. Easiest way is to enter Appstore, go to the Update tab and press Purchases/Not on iPhone. (Using the same Apple-account you won't have to pay for your purchased apps again.)