Thanks for your email, Birdy, but you seem to be a little off the track, but I appreciate the comment.
I have been using Limewire & AOL for several years now with no problems (other than my AOL keeps locking up when running Limewire but from the Forums I'm not alone). And, no, I'm not running any of AOL's built-in scanners, virus hunters, zappers, etc. Today was a TOTAL disaster! All files & Limewire were COMPLETELY GONE! No trace! Nichts! Khong! Zip! Zilch!
I had saved the Limewire source program in another directory so I was able to reload without having to download off my sloooowwww modem. Even my download.dat file was gone.
I first thought that they might have been set as hidden files somehow. Nope! I can see all the other hidden files on the computer. I'm trying a couple UNDELETE programs to see if the files are still there but renamed in some strange convention.
I'll post if I come up with anything.