Super noob computer idiot here 
It all seemed like it would go fine but….no.
Background info I played with gparted to try to wipe a thumb drive. Problem is I figured out after the fact that I had actually “erased” my laptop. BUT it was still operating fine and it looked like all I had actually accomplished was changing the file type to ext3 or so.
Well hop to today when I decided to update and…looks like I screwed myself. Is everything gone or can I still retrieve my files…somehow?
What type of backup did you take before doing all this?
Did you make a full disk backup or just a partial backup? Or at least a simple rsync styled file backup?
Please, elaborate.
Back up? LOL Nope no back up.
I guess I can file this under “learning experience.”
It’s always great to hop into an F1 race show and not wearing seatbelts or having any other security measures in place.
It does not work like that, effortlessly.
Depends on how many files there are, how big they are and how lucky you are.
In the worst case scenario the most important files are gone.
In the best case scenario, you can recover everything, as if all that did not happen. However, that requires effort, care and time.
Uh oh. I’m doomed then. Just some writings and key passwords 
If you have the time and are willing to put in a reasonable amount of effort in recovering everything, I can help you help yourself with that. Do you want to do that or is it not worth it?
I’m willing! However I am a super noob.
Each step will require time, effort and care. You need to learn a few things and you need to stay persistent all the way through.
If you don’t know what the later steps mean or how they are done, that’s not a problem, yet. Just start with step one and work through all the steps, step by step.
You’ll most likely be able to complete steps 1-3 or at least 1-2 without any issues.
@Nivea_Jones
Wiped my whole damn W10 once, but was able to restore with a image backup. Good luck!!!
Awesome! Thank you!! I will try 
If I remember correctly it’s a SSD. Does that matter?
We’ve all done that at least once (I’ve done it twice).
Watched an installment of Bryan Lunduke’s “Linux Sucks” where he had a few celebs, like Richard Stallman, Piers Anthony, Cory Doctorow (one of my favourite writers) and the boss of Red Hat. The boss of Red Hat had to elaborate where he’d actually done something similar the previous night, written an image to his boot drive, instead of other storage. So - I can do it - as can the boss of Red Hat…
For what we are doing here, it does not matter at all. It’s all about saving what’s on your storage medium, no matter if it’s an SSD, HDD or even USB stick. The main point is, that it has to be piece of storage hardware, that looks and works like a HDD from inside Linux.
Maybe this wasn’t clear enough in the first place, so I’ll clarify this point a bit better:
Even if you do all the steps correctly and everything should work, files might still be unrecoverable.
Luckily, this is not likely to happen, but I think you should know about the possibility that all the effort might still fail in the end.
However, if you do all the steps as described correctly, then it’s very likely you’ll get your file system back (best case scenario) or at least a vast majority of your files (not bad, but you have to still re-install your operating system).
Ok. Really appreciate your guidance! I’ve long been avoiding properly learning how to use this system. So here is my moment.
I’m going to set up a System76 laptop I bought last year, first. Then go back and fix the old one I just killed.