If you get promised a new hard drive as a birthday present, and the person who gave it to you keeps promising to order it when the next paycheck comes in, for several paychecks in a row, then the laws of the Universe state exactly what?

If (before the question was even asked) you knew the answer was "your existing hard drive is going to die", you knew exactly what I knew, but hoped would not happen. My PC is currently 100% casters-up. Wont even get to the point where I could boot from a live CD to see what can be recovered. Blarg. Depending on a number of factors, I might or might not be available for TN, but I'll try to make the laptop WoW-ready.