And backup to a dedicated internal drive as well so this doesn't happen again. External drives are touchy, in my experience. A dedicated internal drive is what you want, and you can move it between PCs if its ever needed. Don't put all your eggs in one basic. Make plenty of copies of those eggs.
I have one drive in the top of the closet that I put in once every few weeks. Back up all important data, and then return it to its electrostatic wrapping in bubble wrap in a shoe box.
Glad you got it all, though.
I'm planning on a RAID 5 in a dedicated machine, but that may be a little while.
