When I “saved as” my data files to desktop, it deleted everything when I tried to move the files back to my audacity folder.
Exactly which Audacity are you using? Help > About. There was an early version of Audacity that had troubles with “Save-As.” The current version is 2.4.2.
As a fuzzy rule, you need virus protection less if you’re not connected to the internet—at all.
Many virus packages allow you to list protected file types and processes. “These are the files I don’t want you to mess with.”
Koz
If Norton is interfering with Audacity project you may need to whitelist “.AU” files and “.AUP” files.
See: https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/v15463085
I’m using the most updated version of audacity. Yes, I’m using 2.4.2
I just checked the Quarantined section in my Norton Security History and there was nothing. So they were definitely deleted all immediately. Maybe it wasn’t Norton and they were deleted by some other method, but it was just so immediate. The process really was as simple as moving my files back to the Audacity folder and then trying to open it up again.
It may be useful to know that when you do a “Save Project” or “Save Project As” Audacity saves your work in multiple .au files under a project_data direcory and and then a description of these files in an project.aup file. See Managing Audacity Projects - Audacity Manual
Windows doesn’t help things by hiding file extensions, so if you try to rename things, things can go south quickly. To see file extensions in File Manager, click on the View Tab, then check the box marked File Name Extensions.
I hope this helps. 
I’m actually aware of this. Sorry if I was not clear, but what was deleted was the data folder with all those .au files. Sigh…
I’m not sure that turning off Norton Virus protection will help 