What happened???? and Help

Yesterday I took some shots of wood ducks in a pond by my house. Came home and down loaded into my pictures using Win ME. Formated card and returned to the camera, first mistake. Didn't make a copy, second mistake. Pulled photo into PS-7 made changes crops, USM the usual did not save third mistake. When I hit the print button ,using Epson 1270, the photo went white and the printer just sat there.

Acted as if machine had gone brain dead so I started over only to find the thumbnail in My Pictures was a blank white photo just like PS showed.

I panicked and burned a CD of everything I had, as I should have done in the first place. Any ideas? Anyone ever have this happen before? I've printed a couple of photos since with no problems.

I've kicked my a#%&* up around my ears for not making a copy because this was quite naturally one of those EJ's great duck shots that I rarely get.

Thanks for the compliment quickly download PhotoRescue from http://www.leppphoto.com and use it on the card. If you haven't taken another picture that wrote over the great shot, it will be able to rescue it even if you formatted the card. As a lesson, never ever reuse a card until all data is verified and secured in duplicate. But if you do, never ever put the card back in the camera until you get the images off of it but if you do, immediately use PhotoRescue to get the images back.

E.J. Peiker wrote: As a lesson, never ever reuse a card until all data is verified and secured in duplicate. But if you do, never ever put the card back in the camera until you get the images off of it but if you do, immediately use PhotoRescue to get the images back.

Been there, done that.
Downloaded files, worked on 'em in Photoshop. formatted card in camera, and put away.
Decided to re-do the raw conversion, and went to delete the .tifs Accidentally deleted all. Nothing major, just some pretty good shots of a little league season final...
Panicked, sweated, then remembered how good photorescue is.
Loaded it up, popped in the card, poof. All images back safely on the HD.
Sold a few prints even.

Thanks for the information, I will try Photo Resque as soon as I get home. I stashed the card as soon as I saw what had happened. I know better than to use that work flow but was in a hurry to print and show off my photo. Ego will get you every time huh?

What I need clarification on is a PS or PC question. I'm no PC guru by anybodies standards. I always thought when working on a file in PS that it was a copy and not the original, Am I wrong with this? If so then I can understand why my original is gone, still don't know where it went.

Ej this may need to be in the Digital forum if so feel free to move. Thanks for the help.