NAC...lost all my files on external hard drive...help!

[Steve Meyer]

Sorry for the off topic post, but my computer smart friend is busy so I need help from some of you smart computer guys! Email me off list so we don't waste everyone's time!

I just moved all my pictures and music to an external hard drive, deleted all the ones on my laptop hard drive(because I was out of room) and it worked great for 2 or 3 days. Today, I unplugged the USB from the external drive to my laptop while it was running the My Pictures screen saver and now it has gone through and deleted all my files on the external drive. The warning message says something like: Rewrite error, cannont save file, data is lost, try to resave to a different location. But there is nothing there to save somewhere else. The folders are all still in place, but the files are gone. Every baby picture, vacation pictures my family has taken for the last 4 years was on there! I have some backed up on CDs, but only about 25%!

How screwed am I?

Thanks!
Steve