Back up your data

Over the last 3 years or so I've taken thousands of pictures. I thought "I'd better back up the drive." I went out and bought a back up drive. I ran it, but apparently not successfully?! I had no idea at the time. Not until I tried to load all of my data back onto my new hard drive. Well, sadly, I've lost everything it appears. Trying to figure out a way to save it, but things don't look very good at the moment. Unfortunately it isn't a software problem, it appears the hard drive itself broke down! Not good. If I have any good news I'll pass it along, but mostly I mention this as a warning.