Oh well, all I can say, I guess, is that I can somehow relate to what you may feel now... there is some truth in the words that great projects encounter big problems (hey, even George had major problems with SW) and I experienced this truth first hand as well... not so long time ago my first HDD started giving me warning signals (BSOD due to bad sectors) so I moved data to second drive to burn backup DVDs... and shortly after that second drive died without a warning...

To quote captain Taggart from Galaxy Quest: "Never give up. Never surrender". Don't loose hope. May your project see its successful ending.