Major Document Disappearance Problem

I have lost six hours of valuable work time today and I'm so frustrated with Vista/Sony Vaio that I could scream! On approximately Thursday, 7/10, a window popped up saying that there were upgrades for the system and software. I told it "Later." When it popped up again on Monday, I told it to go ahead and download/install.

Immediately afterwards, I suddenly couldn't find any of my Documents. When the computer restarted (which takes FOREVER with this "dual-core" machine), and I clicked on "Documents" (which is how I've always reached them), the folders simply weren't there. I finally located them under my name, and then "Documents."

I also couldn't get online after the restart--it said the Wireless was turned off (which it wasn't--the switch was set to on and the little blue light was on). I had to have it turn itself back on, and then it connected immediately (I work from home, and I"m approximately 20 feet from all the wireless "stuff")

Then, when I got back online, every single one of my bookmarks on Google was gone--totally & completely! And all of my "remembered" passwords for various websites had been wiped out as well.

But the worst part came this morning, when I went to open up two different document files. I KNOW those files had documents in them after the restart on Monday, because I checked them after the "Documents" "super-file" moved itself to a different place. I had not accessed either one of these files since Monday, 7/14, and I had not been away from the house (i.e., using an outside network).

I almost had a heart attack when I opened one file--and it was completely empty! It should've had 5-6 Word files in it! And it got worse when I opened the second file, which had 3 Word files, but should've had an additional Word file and an Excel file in it! I tried searching, but got a message saying my "shortcuts" were no longer valid, as the documents had been either "moved or deleted." Then, when I found the file names for the documents during an advanced Search, it shows them as "C:\Users\TEMP"--but I was unable to open them from that search window.
I plugged in the jump drive that I'd copied them to after I finished working on two of them last Saturday night--and they weren't there, either, although I had verified that the transfer had been done before removing the jump drive.

By then, I was in full-blown hysteria--these files represented close to 40 hours of work for an accounting class I have to complete in two weeks. I'd lost lesson notes and a homework assignment!

My husband is a computer scientist, and he tried every way he could think of to help me from his office, over the phone, but nothing helped. I called Sony's support line (a TOTAL waste of time!), and the guy there said, "Well, it takes advanced procedures to recover missing files. Here's a number to call for a data recovery company." (Bear in mind, this stupid computer is only 9 months old, and I'm having to PAY to get my documents back?!?)

One last hope--I connected with the Sony online chat people, and although that took forever (they must help 37 people at a time!), he told me how to find the "shadow folders" that each folder apparently contains. For some reason, the primary folder was dated today, and the last shadow folder was Monday, 7/14--the day of the "upgrades." I managed to restore everything, but I simply do not understand why all of these problems occurred.

If I had done something wrong in copying the files over to the jump drive, they wouldn't have been in the folders on 7/14, which they were, even after the restart (although the master Documents folder had been moved.). And why would a folder bear today's date, only to be empty? In addition, I found one Word document in a completely different folder, far, far away from its home folder. I know darned good and well I didn't put it there!!

At this point, I'm starting to look into Macs. I'm going away to graduate school in a month, and I cannot afford problems like this ever again!

Anybody want to buy a Sony Vaio 2.7-pound laptop??? I paid over $2000 for it, and it belongs in the garbage! I will go to my grave thinking that the downloads on Monday caused the problem!