Quick note from the boyfriend's computer: I hate reformatting. I am in desperate need of an external harddrive. Argh. *wanders off to look at newegg and pricewatch for decent external drives*
Update: Reformat complete. Reinstall of Windows XP Pro complete. Making this post from my computer. Thank you god almighty. Now ... the tremendous pain in the ass of recustomizing and reinstalling every goddang thing.
Better yet - just find a good deal on a regular hard drive(they can be so darn cheap nowadays - check http://slickdeals.net/ ) and get an external usb enclosure(about 25 bucks shipped from http://www.geeks.com/ )