Recovered AVCHD turned into thousands of m2ts files. All original videos are gone??

When I returned from my trip, I transferred the AVCHD into my computer and somehow it vanished.. I couldn't find the file anymore and when I ran Disk Drill, all the movies were there (so I guess they got deleted somehow), and when I recovered the videos from my trip, they are all became short, m2ts snippets..

I've never exported the videos with QuickTime, so perhaps this happened when the AVCHD was deleted from the trash?

Is there any way to get back the original videos? The snippets are 2-3 sec long and these were about 20 videos turned into thousands of m2ts..

This is the first time dealing with a camera that recorded AVCHD format, I don't even understand it, or why.. This has never happened with me before.. and it's super confusing. If any of you can help, that would be greatly appreciate it. Thank you!