I think windows just gets bit fatigue. The legendary snake eating its own tail for eternity. But it still thinks it knows what it's doing. It spent hours on "repairing the drive"; three days of Spinrite couldn't undo the damage from 25 sectors (1, 2, and 4 sectors were just special somehow...)
I'm going to buy a new machine in the next day or so. If I can get one with an eSATA hook, I can use a docking station to pull what ever I can from the wrecked drive.
If I drop off line for a while, it's because this POS crashed before I could get a new machine purchased and working.
Thanks,
Hugh