Missing "Application Support" folder in home library (OS 10.6)

So about 6 months ago my old Macbook (from 2006, running OS 10.5.8) finally bit the dust for the last time with a fried logic board. However, this time the hard drive was perfectly functional, so I rescued it from the laptop before trading in the rest of the parts to get a discount on a new Macbook Pro (running OS 10.6.8).

Because the hard drive is still functional, I'm using a hard drive reader to transfer over all my files and information to the new laptop. Everything is there on the old drive, except one key component. I'm missing the "Application Support" folder from my home library (~/Library), which contains a lot of important settings for several applications I use (such as Firefox, an MSN messenger clone I use, etc). I've tried connecting the hard drive reader several times, and each time that folder is missing when I open up the home folder Library.

This folder was clearly there and functioning when the hard drive was still in my old computer. So my question is, where did it go? Is there any way of accessing it with the hard drive reader? Is it gone because of some kind of corruption, and why is it just that folder in particular that's missing? Any help anyone could give would be greatly appreciated, since the missing settings contained information that will be very difficult, if not impossible to replace.

Thanks!