I was 5 hrs in but I've already gone through it a milion times back in its days. That said, I don't want to restart it now...So you lost your save file? If so, that sucks man; while it is a really fun game, re-doing all that progress leveling up/grinding for bolts/collecting things is really messed up X(. Sorry about that man....
A great trick for grinding for bolts is to visit the very first ship combat section and re-play the second mission over and over by killing everything with the nuke ship weapon (if you have that already). Do that a few times and you can get weapons like nothing XD! Doing the same thing for the first mission in the last space combat level is really great too; lots more bolts to get per-mission completion. You have to shoot the nuke at the center mountain thing (should be to the right of your ship when the level starts). Do this enough times and you will be swimming in bolts.
BTW, I downloaded the complete R&C1 save from cloud, then laucnhed R&C2 again and now the old save is nuked too.
I guess the saves are tied somehow, so if you have the three separated games be careful.