Two things, the far more important "moral" is always, always, always, always, always keep backups of important files. The best solution I've found is to keep them on gDisk (free utility that allows you to use a Gmail account as storage) or iDisk, or both. But I digress. The real issue is getting your HD to work again. You did TRY the "initialize" option, right? Try and follow that through and see where it takes you. If it gets you nowhere, the manufacturer should have a troubleshooting guide for just this sort of issue. I mean, everyone makes mistakes like that sometimes. If just ONE screws up the hard drive completely, the product just isn't durable. They should be able to help you with that. If they won't/can't and the data is that important, a hard disk recovery place should be able to recover your important files.