I wouldn't worry too much about SkyDrive using up your battery. Unless you are taking lots and lots of photos, it shouldn't be an issue. As I mentioned earlier, it's going to be best to try and solve the problem of them disappearing in the first place.
Did you try the method I linked to earlier? Just to be sure, I'll paste below what was suggested in that thread:
1-Update your Nokia Camera app to the latest version -go to the store and search for the app and an update will show if any- tried it with Nokia Camera ver. 4.3.0.6
2-Open the Nokia Camera App and the go to the settings.
3-At the far bottom it says "Find photos and videos shot with Nokia Camera This is useful after a phone reset or data restore" Click on the Link.
It will show a message at the top of the screen and when its done it will fix everything.. Horrray!
Also, apparently when this happens, sometimes you can retrieve your pictures by connecting your phone to a PC. You could try browsing your phones pictures from a PC to see if they show up. I doubt this will resolve the actual problem, but you may be able to retrieve your pictures.
Give the above steps a try and let us know whether this solved the problem or not.