File deleted in workgroup folder.

Well, what my friend can do to a computer is death defying. I set up a network for him but am forever fixing what he has managed to unfix in imaginative ways. I am not a networking wiz but have been able to get the network up and running again on numerous occasions. This last one has me scratching my head:

He has a Compaq Presario Notebook running W2k. I have his Dell Desktop running XP Proff, Service Pack 1 networked with the Notebook through a linksys DSL router with VPN point. He is also running Black Ice Defender (or I should say it runs him). He said "I was dragging a file to the shared folder and the network just stopped working !", so I went for Black Ice first and sure enough it had alerted him and he clicked to block the IP. I fixed that and still no network. The workgroup is named "HOME", but everytime I clicked on it it was not accessble, so I went back in and changed the name and password on both machines to match, and 'lo and behold I was able to "see" the network on the notebook, I very proudly opened the "HOME" folder, and there sitting in the HOME's living room was the file he had been trying to drag to the shared folder, and having done so, he then happily agreed when the computer asked if he wanted to replace the exsisting file with the current one. (It is the only explanation I can come up with)

So. Where would I go to recover the contents of the HOME folder, or do I just need to trash the network and start from scratch?

Thank goodness for Major Geeks.

Lynmac