Strange, it never happened to us. The hard drive has only went boof twice - the first time was the first computer we got on the first day . The second time was with the same computer when we had the new computer already ordered, thankfully we got everything transferred. Now we have two 200 GB ones and no problems.. Oh.. and I don't think I delete anything.

As to cheer you up, I don't think it's that bad. Altough you were a bit 'stupid' not to make backups of your bigger stuff.