ouch ... that hurts. gives a whole new meaning to "effective backup strategy"

about the only thing I can think of is this ... why not explain your problem to all of your profs ... see if a bunch of them would be willing to write you individual recommendation letters that:
a) vouch for your loss (so the firm's won't think you're blowing smoke up their arses) and
b) give a general description of the quality of your prior work and your talents, and
c) indicate a willingness to take calls from employers to discuss you and your abilities.

i did interview a candidate once who lost a substantial portion of her student portfolio when a tornado took off most of the roof of her apartment ... I have to say, being able to view photographs of the damaged apartment and some waterstained drawings that she was able to bring gave a lot of credibility to her story.

nevertheless, it's really hard to interview candidates who bring little or no work to the interview ... i've been on the receiving end of that sort of thing from time to time in the past and it's just extremely difficult to know what the candidate has done, or can do, without something tangible to view.

be prepared to answer the question "why didn't you backup your computer and photograph your boards?"

best wishes, and good luck.

Do any of your professors have back up of your work? I have saved a few student's hides in this way before.

I think you just have to hunt around for images on other peoples computers, or on your mum's wall or wherever, and make some new projects. Or try to redraw the old ones.

Wow, that really sucks. Have any of your classmates taken photos of your past work? Just a thought.

believe it or not, i've actually interviewed someone who didn't even bring a portfolio or anything! she said it wasn't relavent to what she's applying for. i gave her a second interview, requesting that she bring anything she could to show what she can do. long story short, she got the job. there's no way around it, you have to bring something, no matter how insignificant or irrelavent you think the material is, as long as it reflects your skills, your passion, i would say most interviewers are flexible and quite open minded to stuff like this. like someone mentioned, glowing recommendations wouldn't hurt either.

ouch, all the more reason to post some stuff online every now & then.

if you don't have a portfolio, i suggest bringing gifts. most people like gifts.

When I teach I'm usually required to document and provide examples of each student's work to the department at the end of the semester. Or occasionally the departments only require that I provide examples of a few students' work, representing the best, average, and poorest work (because this is what NAAB requires architecture programs to provide when they do accreditation visits.)
Regardless of what the schools require, professors usually keep examples of student work as part of their own teaching portfolios. So do check with both your school and your teachers to see what they've got.

Has any of your work ever been included in things like the school's catalogs or publications? Ever been exhibited somewhere where it might have made it into a brochure or online or anything like that? Those kind of things often make good portfolio filler anyway.

If there's really no record of any of the work then just go with whatever you do have and what you produce this semester. I think it's ok to mention what happened, but at the same time I think you should let the work you do have represent you and not be too apologetic or do too much to call attention to what's missing.

that's awful...I was in a similar situation myself about a year-and-a-half ago, right before applying to grad programs. I ended up having no option but to redraw my work. It was a pretty soul-deadening summer, on the face of it (how many stairs? what did those columns look like? ugh...), but the experience of reconsidering all of my work ended up being a good one. The re-do let me draw new connections between my old ideas, and the frustration of it all really pushed me to make new work. Long story short, new research possibilities opened up, and I ended up getting funding to travel for a good long time. It'd all be a cliche if it weren't actually true... :)

As for explaining yourself to potential employers/schools, what worked for me was not saying too much about the situation myself, but having a professor mention it in his reference letters (he offered, I didn't ask). It explains the situation, and instead of potentially making you look whiny, turns you into an Overcomer of Obstacles.

Good Luck!