Ouch...AS is kind of a dangerous program now and has been seriously crippled from what it used to do. You used to be able to completely backup the device and do this over WIFI. The conflict management was alot better too during syncing. I believe what has happened is that you have now synced your device to "data" that was on your PC, e.g. nothing. Usually it happens when you have an empty Outlook profile (a new PC) and syncing to the device. Erases contacts/calendar/tasks, etc. from the device. You probably have "replace items on device with PC" checked in AS. No warning. I know, pretty stupid. I didn't know that that would happen if you didn't have Outlook installed. I know that this is no comfort to you and after the fact but PIMbackup is invaluable in these cases:
http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ppc-...ckup-v2-8.html
I seriously doubt that the rock was smart enough to delete your contacts. LOL. Or the drop.