[Quall999]

hmm, was your xbox bought used?

Next, are the xbl connection settings set to auto?

I got the xbox when it first came out, and backed up every dash i've had since. Xbox live didn't come around untill about a year after the xbox's release. If you didn't have an xbox live dashboard, whenever you'd hit "go live" in a game, it would update your dash to enable xbox live. Which is what i did when i redid my C drive. Then i redid the E drive because i was having some problems.

Anyways, when i re-did E, i was able to connect and recover my account with no problems. I think i may have deleted all the other xbl related saves off E when i did so.