Yeah, Spider's up and running (I renamed him SpiderJerusalem), but for how long is anyone's guess.
larbrokur walked me through some diagnostics, and I emailed him the chkdsk report. It definitely looks like the HD is dying slowly. To credit Microsoft, Windows has actually been doing a fantastic job working around the problem, but there's no guarantee how long it will last.
I'm annoyed, but I'm thankful this did not happen a couple of weeks ago, when I had two massive essay tests to research and type up. It's also an opportunity to learn how to replace a hard drive. Waiting on some cash, and then I'ma fix dis bitch my damself, yo!
Getting this when I can.