saving data [How to save and restore Albums without re-creating them from scratch?]

I use albums as a subset of folders.   My computer crashed-  Using an external hard drive I retrieved all the pix in the folders.  But  -  I could not get the Albums backl.

With many hrs of work I can recreate them-   Is there a better way of saving BOTH folders and albums ( they were in 1 catalogue)  Or there something else I could be doing.

thank you

ed