If notebooks are deleted from an account, the notes go into the trash notebook. There are no known cases of Evernote casually deleting notebooks - the most likely explanation here might be that you actually created a new account rather than re-opening the old free account. The Forums are mostly user-supported, and we don't have any visibility of passwords - best advice would be to use your subscriber email support and contact Evernote direct - ask them to check whether you have any other accounts against your user name or email address - and list any other names or emails you might have used initially.