Recently I backed up all my photos to an external hard drive, in doing this I accidentally cut and pasted the 'Lightroom' folder, which was in 'my pictures'. On realizing this I wasn't too dismayed, because I didn't think it would compromise my catalogue (I assumed it was only backups that I had moved). 

However, when next I opened light room I found that the catalogue was not there. I tried to open the backups and reinstate the catalog into light room, which worked to an extent, the files look as if they are there, apart from a little question mark in the top right corner, when I click on them a dialogue box opens, stating that the file could not be located.

My question is, is it possible to restore the catalogue in all its former glory from the backups, or is it all gone for good?