OK, this is the problem when I post these things publicly, as opposed to moving to email: people start trying them/messing around!
Never delete anything out of /Volumes unless you have a darn good reason to: that alias is important to the operation of your drive, which is mounted and current. Any anything that's a "real" drive name is important, too.
Yes, "/" is the "path separator", which indicates levels in the folder structure.
I can't explain why you would have a "volumes" folder in your Home, unless you copied it there yourself. Look closely into the folder and don't delete things unless you KNOW what they are...