Well, I started it up this morning, and aside from any faint fizzles coming from the works, I actually didn't sense any issues with the boot's performance for once. I still have Cakewalk (my main MIDI tool), Cubase and all my samples backed up, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem either (though some are that big they may not even be installed on any backup systems and I may need to resort to freebies; not a problem, I could always ask Jason Covenant for some pointers).
But I'm going to have to be more cautious than ever, and that means immediately saving to external storage when done.
I'll run a scandisc some point later, but let's say it here; in spite of the mishaps, I'm going to be a brave lizard and stick with the Sonic bracket. There will always be a way to something as unexpected as this - they don't call me Rexy for nothing x)