I thought I would post this to let other idiots know and perhaps stop them doing what I did.
In cs-cart you can create a new block to allow you to add new content to a tab on the product page. I did this to insert html for each product giving more information ← alass cscart has no way to do this in bulk
So I created 500 of these each with different information.
NOW THE CATCH - yesterday I decided one of my products didn’t need this information. While editing that product I clicked on blocks and deleted the block. Yes what a mistake to make ! I should have just edited the setting. This simple click deleted all 500
Can I suggest that some form of protection is put in place so that blocks can’t be deleted so easy in the single product edit page. To my mind creating blocks is a level higher then creating products and so both shouldn’t be mixed or atleast some warning should be shown.