I have had a number of different WD drives die on me, to the point where I won't buy them any longer. In most instances it has not been the actual mechanism inside, but rather part of the electronics in the enclosure that had failed. I've been able to rip the drive out of the enclosure and hook it up to a USB to SATA dock that I have and get all of my data. I know this probably sounds like a pain in the ass, and it is, but it means that there is a good chance the data is still there.

I don't care if it's more intuitive for new Office users. How many new Office users are there, anyway?

Heh. Too true.

My theory is that Office and Windows are by far the biggest cash cows for Microsoft. Office is a pretty mature produce (as is Windows) so maybe the redesign is an attempted justification for people to upgrade to the newest version. Because I'm not sure what the benefits are for the changes to Office.

OTOH, as far as Office 2007 is concerned, I mostly just use Access--either to just look at tables, or to develop front-end database applications for users, so I'm sure there's lots of stuff I'm not using.

Yeah, I did the only OS upgrading I ever do these days, i.e., when I buy a new computer. So I have 7 now and got mostly used to it, but plenty of stuff still bugs. I do like the bit where I can bump one window up against the left side and one against the right and then they are automatically side by side comparison ready. It`s nice because it`s basically a fourth state (minimized, maximized, restored, & now side by side) so I can do the comparison work, and then get right back to the restored size I like.
 
But I hate the flickering of the transparent frame. And lots of other stuff. Oh, and I`m still using Office 2003, although I update Open Office regularly.

What I loathe about 7 is the Explorer and the stupid libraries. I managed to make the flickering go away and finally convinced it to run everything as an admin, so we've reached a truce of sorts.

I'm a bit weirded out now by how Windows 95 Classic is, and I want a middle ground. I just can't work out where those settings are. I refuse to close the Personalisation window until I work it out.

I don't know when I became a Mac, but shit. It took.

And you really don't like Windows 7 default? I find it to be by far the Macciest Windows yet. I actually find it rather a pleasure to use (though I still boot into it quite rarely)

The transparent windows thing is a no go for me. I keep getting lost between applications. And the task bar doesn't make it obvious enough what's running (though it's clear in Windows Classic).

In the Aero themes, you can just turn off the transparency, by opting to change window color; there's a checkbox. That was insufficient for me, so I went with Windows 7 Basic. It's okay. There is a slightly lighter background behind the icons that are actual open in the task bar, but yeah, I agree with the objection.

I have had a number of different WD drives die on me, to the point where I won't buy them any longer. In most instances it has not been the actual mechanism inside, but rather part of the electronics in the enclosure that had failed. I've been able to rip the drive out of the enclosure and hook it up to a USB to SATA dock that I have and get all of my data. I know this probably sounds like a pain in the ass, and it is, but it means that there is a good chance the data is still there.

Well, I tried the Disk Utility as le nubian suggested. The utility recognized the drive but fixing permissions failed. I may have to give it up for lost. I just bought a new drive that I hope will work.

Meanwhile, my modem is once again in failure mode. This time when I called Qwest I explained all of the things that I had done to reset it and how many people had been out to look at the situation and the guy just said, "They should have replaced the modem right away" so he ordered me a new one, it's still under warranty. It should arrive at the beginning of the week, so I am hopeful.

don't give up yet.

do a "verify disk" and see what happens.