bad news people. when we started the project my cousin told me :
"well use my machine for development as its much faster and way more reliable than that piece of junk you have"
however, about 3 hours ago his HDD of 7 years began making ticking noises and died, taking the distro along with it.
looks like well have to start again (if i can face it)
moral of the story: keep backups as the worst can happen and it will