HELP!!! Lost data

[baf11]

Help!

I had been using GnuCash for over a year and been very happy.  However,
when I loaded the application today I noticed that all transactions
between 5/24/2004 and today have been erased from my data.  I haven't
recently changed anything in GnuCash, haven't upgraded the software,
nothing.  

The only things I can think of that might be related are that I made a
copy of the GnuCash data for archival purposes, but that should have
been read only.  Also I've had some recent power outages, but GnuCash
probably wasn't loaded in memory.

This is GnuCash 1.8.9 on Gentoo.

Is all that data lost?  There's no way I could type it all in again,
much less find it.  How in the world could so much data disappear???

Thanks for any help.  Please CC me as I'm not subscribed.

brian