This is marginal help and you probably already know this:
When you "delete" files from your computer, you are not actually deleting anything except a link (to that file) stored in some table somewhere. So, all you're deleting is an entry in a table. The tricky thing is to find the data without that pointer. There is software and disk recovery programs to help you do that. I had a friend who created a business doing exactly that. If Dwayne or ravi, can't help, I'll look him up and see what he can do. What I don't know is whether freeBSD makes recovery harder or easier.
The memory that your (deleted) data takes up in your computer is not overwritten, it just becomes "available" memory. The next time you save something to disk, the O/S may decide to reuse that memory and, at that point, it will overwrite your old data.
So what ravi said is true -- make minimal/no use of computer.
If it's any comfort, my second week as a tech writer, I was sitting next to this guy with a Ph.D. in computer science who, discombobulated by overwork, accidentally erased his entire hard drive. He started laughing hysterically and couldn't stop. Pretty soon, the entire company was standing around his cubicle clucking sympathetically. By comparison your tone seems amazingly calm.
Paper backup is good.
Joanna