Alias: First of all, don't do anything like add more files or install new stuff to the hard drive - this might over write the "missing files". You say that the files are not in the trash so it may be that there has been a hard drive error of some sort. If you have something like Norton utilities already installed -- run the disc diagnostics. If you don't, run a scandisk or a CHKDSK and see if it reports any problems. I had a similar experience with about a month's worth of downloads of which there was a lot of stuff that I had bought. I was able to run Norton and after it did its "thing" I rebooted and the files were all back . . .

Allan Thornton