Well, I really feel like I broke through the pain barrier, with a lot of help from some great people on this forum (I think I am still going to need a bit more!). It takes a while to work out as a noob what things you just need to work out the new name and location for (like control panel), and what things are just different (like how drives are handled). Not getting the drive thing, and hunting about for an equivalent to C: was doing my head in until I worked out that it's just different.
I think I now have my system to the stage where I can use it for nearly everything that I use win2000 for (except my softmodem, which I haven't started working on yet, and one of my cd drives, but that is just going to take a little fiddling).
It's immensely satisfying to get it working, and I do feel I'm starting to get the hang of it. Thanks to everyone who helped me get this far, I hope I can return the favour to someone else!