Music Crisis

I am grieving the loss of several thousand songs.

I thought they were safe on my external hard drive.

I thought I knew what I was doing.

But, I f*cked up.

They are gone.

Thousands of dollars, hundreds of hours spent downloading, burning, ripping...80% of it is gone.

I am in shock. I spent over an hour searching my computer for them....I am fairly tech saavy so I know where to look and what to do...but they are fucking gone.

I emptied my recycle bin - does anyone know how to retrieve something after its been deleted from there? That's my only hope.

I am crying.