After reading your tragic scenario I went online and bought winzip for my PC. I backed up my favorites with all those patterns etc. in it to my exterior drive as well.
Now I can zip the files so that they don't take a lot of room and store them on the ED and I will be in good shape a couple of ways.
I hope all goes well for you and you get everything back. If there is something you are still missing in a tut or pattern, please ask me via PM. If I have it I will help you to have it back again.