Deleted private folder, commence panic.

I was a dummy and accidentally deleted my private folder, and my macbook pro, running Mavericks, will not boot.

I have not emptied the trash, and so hoped to use my external hard drive/time machine to restore to my latest backup. However, when I tried this, my hard drive wan't recognized. I looked at it in a friend's mac, and apparently it is empty, despite the numerous 'successful' backups I've performed over the past two years.

I have partitioned my hard drive with boot camp, so I can boot and use my windows side without issue! I can, as far as I know, access and backup my mac files from the windows side, which is my next step.

I have also tried a few times to move the private file in Terminal - but I'm not sure if I was doing it correctly. (I've been snooping other threads from users with the same issue, but I haven't made it work. I thought maybe the bootcamp side of things might merit a new thread - I hope this is ok?)

I'm not sure what I should try next - is there any way to save my mac side?
My computer confidence has taken a huge hit! I'd really appreciate some step-by-step help! Thanks.

 

Will do.

Thank you, I will give that a try.

 

Leman, it worked; no data lost! Thank you for your help! And maflynn, I'll look into cloning my drive. That sounds like the best idea going forward.
Thanks again.