Can someone help me?

So, I've had my Palm Pre for about 2 and a half months now, and I absolutely love it so far. I've done what I can with it so far, (ie, installing preload & preware, and messed with themes, aftermarket apps, and patches), but as of yesterday everything has gone to hell.

I am not sure which version I had before, but as of yesterday (11/17/2009) there was a new update release that effed my stuff up. I had about 17 different patches installed from Preware, and it instantaneously made them stop working, along with all of my audio on my phone. (speaker phone is the only audio that would still work) Notifications, and the earpiece would not make any sound.

So, i decided just to back-up my stuff and do a hard reset to factory specs.

Now, I want to put all my stuff back on there from my pc, (pics, music, ringtones, etc) and when I plug it up via USB, it doesn't even give me the option to use it as a USB storage device...

And insight, or knowledge on the situation?

Is anyone else having this problem?

I saw that patch on Preware that did that, but I didn't install it. Even if I did, I have hard reset my phone, so none of the patches are on it anymore.

I'm trying to get it in USB mode to put my files back on it, and reinstall Package Manager Service, Preware and Preload.

What do you mean by 'option'?
(when you said 'option+sym+U)
is that like, caps, or shift?

thanks

In the future updates run the emergency patch removal tool included with WebOS Quick Install.  The patches change code when installed to the Pre and need to be removed so the code goes back to "normal" before updating.  You can re-add the patches once its updated.  It's a small price to pay to avoid this hassle.