... Well, technically it's not exactly 'dead' dead seeing as I'm finally here posting again... (and apparently now have access to the net). But yeah, wow... talk about a nightmare weekend.
)... Either I had the mother of all viruses, or... my computer was in the midst of a digital heart attack. Neither sounds too pleasant, but after a couple $100s wasted, I kind of think I probably would've preferred the mother virus 
.
... The good news though is that my secondary hard drive (which is actually my main computer) is just fine thankfully. So ultimately nothing was lost... aside of course from valuable time and money. I'm so kicking myself for having procrastinated on buying that laptop
.... I should be back in working order soon enough though 
... or at least following a much needed restructure of my folders... again.