Lost My Pictures- For Good?

For anyone reading my past posts, apologies for the gaping holes where all pictures should be.  Either through malicious intent externally or ignorant dealings internally, I appear to have lost all  my files on my computer, extending apparently to those on the blog.  I've never heard of losing files on a hard drive, and then those also being gone to things you upload.    It looks kind of ghostly-like  someone has taken a scissors to a scrap book.  I knew this lap top was starting to glitch on me.  It has taken a lot of wear and tear in two and 1/2 years, but I think there might be more to it.  Nothing of importance isn't backed up, but this strange connection between my hard drive and cyber world is a bit concerning. Any advice out there from someone who has experienced the same?