The damned thing wasn’t showing my music on my laptop and I thought maybe formatting it would help - not exactly - now my music is gone (285 songs) and I am wondering if there is any hope of getting those songs back???
Are you making an announcement of this fact to everyone here?
Is this something that all members & guests will benefit from in knowing?
Is this cause for celebration?
This _ is _ the Announcements board after all.
Just messin’ wit’ ya. 
In answer to your question though . . . in a word, NO. 
As far as the cause of your dilemma? There are 2 USB modes to connect your player to your computer, MTP & MSC. Your computer will see the player differently in each of these modes and each has advantages & dis-advantages. As it pertains to you and your problem though, files transferred in one mode cannot be seen or accessed while connected in the other. You apparently put your songs on in one mode, whichever it might have been and then the player got switched to the other mode, either intentionally or un-intentionally. You then couldn’t ‘find’ the songs and decided to format it, erasing all content.
Remember, formatting is a one-way street & permanent. Best to use it only as a last resort and make sure your music collection is backed-up on your computer, so you can re-transfer afterward.
Here’s some more info on MTP vs. MSC. Feel free do use the Search function here. There are many, many other (and more in-depth) discussions on the subject.
You DID have your music backed-up, didn’t you?
