Looks like I've got a brick.

I'm stuck on the "Clearing data..." screen regardless of what I do. It made it to some "72%" or something like that mark and lost the connection to the phone. Based on the experiences I'd read here, I rebooted... the phone a bunch (including "emergency" mode) and the PC... and restarted the app... etc... no go.

In hind sight, I think I unchecked the "USB connection" box in WMDC (duh) and I didn't do a hard reset before starting. Both really stupid. I'd been too lucky in the past and wasn't even paying attention this time. New phone is on it's way and my old i730 is back in action for a few days. I didn't tell Verizon exactly why it ended up this way... but there it is... and the replacement is on its way.

If anyone has any ideas how to get around the point where I'm stuck at "Clearing data..." (other than the 30+ times of poking the red recessed button), lemme know. I can't see any of the new Samsung driver stuff in the Device Manager, so I suspect it's not really loading them... hmm...

EDIT: I find that if I boot to "PHONE Emergency mode" I still get nowhere... but I CAN see the "SAMSUNG Mobile Modem" and "SAMSUNG Mobile Modem Diagnostic Serial Port (WDM) (COM" in Device Manager. FWIW, as the saying goes... but still a brick.