Recovering old itunes library and file locations

Hi all,

Just as a preamble, I am pretty tech illiterate so please be patient with me.

History:

- purchased new laptop (yay!)

- downloaded/restored saved itunes library from backup disc

- library appeared in itunes but could not play songs as "itunes cannot find file" etc etc

- spent hours researching and trying to find file location, contacted itunes support etc etc - NO SUCCESS

- got frustrated and deleted pretty much everything and started a new library

- cannot locate old backup disc (moved house)

Is there any way that I can locate that old library on my PC? Surely it is still somewhere on my PC?

I am currently running a recovery scan to try to locate these music files. I can see them on the recovery scan but the location just says C:. When I search the C drive by the file name, nothing comes up?

Any ideas about file recovery and/or location for this hapless and hopelessly frustated apple user (am starting to really really dislike apple)

2 other fun things which also happened:

1) had the old library on my ipod classic

- tried to transfer music files from ipod to the computer

- selected "do not automatically sync ipod" preference

- guess what? Ipod was automatically synced and now the old library has been wiped - thanks Apple!!!

2)- bought new iphone (5s)

- backup up old iphone (3g)

- cannot access backup as it is now encrypted, but I certainly do not remember putting a password on it

- have now lost all contact info etc

Gotta love the user-friendliness of Apple. Time to get a Samsung I think!

P.S. New iphone is only 3 months old and is already freezing and is sometimes unresponsive (end call, etc.)