My external HD is finally fixed. I first got a new adaptor and thought that would fix it, but no, instead it turned out that the casing was fried. I took it to a local computer shop and the tech (who is quite cute and a Kiwi) gave me the good news. Which is good because if the actual HD was fried or something, then I'd have to pay $200+ for data recovery and I don't have that. He also asked if had kept it on 24/7 which I totally did and I told him not really, but he said to keep it powered off as much as possible to keep from frying the casing.
Heh. Oops?
Now to back everything up... again.
In other news, I'm totally in love with my eReader; I have over 100 new books and I can't decide what to read now. \o/