What developers do when a VM goes awry

So my MOSS VM decided to spend an hour running a check disk and recovering bad sectors. This is a very unhappy time when you think of all the code you didn't check in yet... One of my daughters had requested a Dr. Seuss book for bedtime and I was in a verse-ish kind of place... so here is how I spent that hour or so:

If your custom SharePoint project
isn't cookin' like it should
and your deployment situation's
falling flat, well then you could

give a read to this short rhyme
and grab your Stud'io Two Thousand Five
for it may help you unravel
all that's ravelled in your hive.

Two thousand eight will be out soon
you ought to get it quick
for it helps you get things done
that the old version couldn't lick.

SharePoint and the MOSS have grown
beyond a simple tool
so you'll need to get some help
to keep you sane, don't be a fool!

The M-S-D-N documents
are kind of hard to find
but some books can be quite helpful
and the the forum folks are kind.

Now deploying your solution
will depend on what you need
Because a content-type's a list
but not exactly, its agreed.

Will you push a form li-brary
or a web part for the req?
Or perhaps a site-based column'd
ease the pain that's in your neck?

Either way you said you'd follow
S-D-L-C so you ought
to make the final tested product
a package deal on the first shot

There are lots of bits and pieces
in this puzzle to deploy
Because that server's got a lot
of moving parts, its not a toy!

One way to get your stuff out
is to use a feature package
You can push it out and pull it back
and keep your audit trackage.

First you'll need a feature X-M-L
to make your product active
and place all your files in the same place
to be much more proactive.

The feature file contains the list
of things to bring online
and it also gives the Goo-ID
to make your system more refined.

You just copy the whole folder;
feature, files and X-M-L
and include the other docs you made
in programs like Excel.

But that's only the first step
there are still other steps to take
like the S-T-S command line tool
that's a little bit opaque.

You say install the feature
and it goes and does its thing
and if you force it you can redeploy
and really make it sing.

After the command line tool
has finished you can move
on to Central Admin
execution where you'll prove

that the work you did was proper
so you activate it now..
if all's well your feature's working
and you get to take a bow.

That's all that there is to it
and I can't be more precise
I learned it just a tick ago
(oh, and it seems my booze needs ice).