Data Loss?

So I was searching for a file that is really important to me and I found it last night. The issue is, I accidentley sent it to the recycle bin along with some other semi-important things. So I highlighted all of the and drug them back to my finder window and only about 5 showed back up on my computer and my trash is now empty and I can't find them anywhere on my computer. They are all .docx files so that's what I searched for in the finder window, and after that didn't work I looked for the actual names to no avail. Anyone have an idea of what's going on?

??? I can only recommend never drag anything out of the trash. If you want to restore from the trash, right click and select 'Put back'.

(and there is no "recycle bin" in OS X)

Ohh. I've always dragged them out of the trash and never had an issue. I'm still stuck in PC world with the "recycle bin" =)

I just don't know exactly what happens when you drag them out - it "should" work - but I've always used the built in 'Put back' function - similar to the Restore function from the recycle bin in Windows.

So do you think my data is permanently gone? If so, that really sucks.

Did you have a Time Machine, SuperDuper or CarbonCopyClone backup by any chance? Vitally important.

I have a Copy on my external but the files disappeared off there too. It was plugged in and that's what I was using to get them onto my computer.