Pictures folder disappeared?

[choop]

hello,

my pictures folder has disappeared.

when you go to the start menu, and right click on properties, the properties box comes up blank. when you click on the shortcut, nothing happens. i tried searching for the sub-folders, and nothing comes up.

when you go screen that shows all of the user folders, the pictures folder is not there either. when i try to save a picture, i can't get to the folder in that little hierarchy either.

luckily i have everything backed up on an external drive, but this is very bizarre and would like some help in finding out how to return this folder.

i took some screenshots but it will not let me post those.

[choop]

i've been able to get the start menu shortcut to work and the folder to return by importing new pictures from my camera, however it is a new folder and all the previous sub-folders are gone.

guess it pays to back up!