Yet another computer problem!

Wifey has a Toshiba Satellite C650 laptop with two USB ports, which both
suddenly died earlier today. Much browsing and experimenting, with zero
result.

Things I've tried include :

Disabling power saving for each USB port

Uninstalling, via Device Manager, everything relating to USB ports.
Windows 7 Home finds and reinstalls. No little yellow warning signs.

Multiple reboots, including removing battery, leaving for ten minutes,
holding the power button with the battery removed.

Reset BIOS

An online service via Microsoft

Tried system restore. Various dates. All failed.

I have NOT tried HDD Recovery, because that is a last resort which
will,I assume, blitz everything currently on the hard drive.

I do have an image of the hard drive, taken last December, but it is on
USB, so cannot be used. Tried to copy it to DVD via Imgburn, but it is
too big - over 7GB.

Everything else works. Not sure how this image thing works. Could I
just copy everything on the image one at a time over our home network,
assuming I can find where they were copied from? Or is that too simple?

Any other ideas?

Thanks!
--
Graeme