Techno evils I must endure

Hey all, I know that I don't come on here and discuss much, but I just discovered that I have almost completely lost my music library!  I had it all stored on my laptop and had even transfered(copied) it to a free standing hard drive to keep it a little safer.  Well, apparently with that same hard drive hooked up to my computer, I had plugged in my Zune player overnight to charge and sync and during that time my entire library was mysteriously expunged from both locations.
 I have a few albums left, but I literally lost hundreds of hard to find works.  I still have many of the CDs and I can recreate a fraction of the library, but for the most part, it's gone.  I am absolutely SICK about this and I have no clear notion as to how or why this would/could happen.  I know that the Zune players had their problems and that they discontinued their production, but my player has been working fine for a number of years and I can't help but think that some kind of virus or out and out piracy bug came in on the sync link.  Could it be that since many of these albums were shared from friends of mine that they were erased because they weren't "purchased"?  I wish I were a little more techno-savy and could trace these problems down, but unfortunately there doesn't appear to be anything I can do but start rebuilding.  If anybody has any ideas on the matter I'd love to hear them.  Meanwhile, I'll be the sad-faced, pissed off guy with the clueless expression on his face over here moping in the corner. :-(
   I wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!  Peace!