PLEASE HELP!!!!! I Think I May Have Lost Everything!

Hello,

I am not a tech-savvy person, and I'm currently having to write this from my phone, so I apologize in advance for any errors or whatever... Anyway, I use a Sony VAIO laptop for work, and it is used strictly fot work and work alone... I have hundreds of very important files on it, and I have never had an issue with it before.

Last night, I was working on it just fine, and I left it on when I went to bed because I needed to print a large document. I woke up this morning and came down to continue working, and my screen had gone to that wavy blue user login background with a large message asking me if I wanted to perform a Data Rescue or System Rescue or something. Obviously confused and panicked, I chose yes, and it told me to back up my data to an external device. I plugged in my external hard drive, and set it as the device to have everything backed up to... I am currently on a wavy blue user log in style scree with a message that says "Rescuinng data..." and has a loading bar... It is currently at 2.87/163.89GB and has an estimated time of 23:55:30, but that time keeps fluctuating...

I am honestly in a panic and do not know what has happened or what to do... I use this laptop for work, and it contains a special $4,500 transcription program, as well as hundreds if not thousands of sensitive legal documents. Losing this data could easily mean losing my job... On top of all of this, I have a ton of work to do and I can't afford to fall behind!

Please, if anybody can explain to me what's going on or offer assistance in any way, I would appreciate it immeasurably. Thanks in advance for any response!

Sure. Not sure if I did it right, so just in case, here's the Imgur version too: imgur: the simple image sharer

Yeah, actually, it did! I'm sorry I forgot to post that originally. I forgot about that detail.

Okay. I'll do that. Thanks very much for your help, I really do appreciate it...

If I might ask, this is a pretty pristine computer used only for offline document transcription and some light, work-related internet browsing... do you know what exactly may have caused this or what role the Sony VAIO Care has to play in all of this?

VistaKing said:

Did you accidentally press any keys ? That window is for putting the laptop back into Factory Settings . It will ask you do you want to back up your data before we run the factory restore .

( not trying to scare you . Just trying to get some info and give info )

This is my own personal laptop. I purchased it myself because technically I'm a private contractor, so I have no IT department to go to, unfortunately.

And, VistaKing, no, I didn't press any keys. I set a large document to print last night, as I have done hundreds of times, and then I went to bed. Everything was working perfectly fine. I came down this morning, and the document was sitting in my printer bay perfectly printed, and that initial message asking me if I wanted to do a system rescue was on my screen.