60Gig launch model died on me when I was playing FF13 :(... Got YLOD...  If I send it in and request it for repair and not get a refurb do I still get my hardd rive with save data back?  

Sorry for your loss, but couldn't you take the hdd out then send it in?

I believe your supposed to but mine has never died so i'm not sure.

Take it to a 3rd party repair shop if you want the same console back, should be about half what Sony would charge.

If you send it to Sony you will most likely get a refurb.

Sorry to hear that, I know how you feel FS has had my 60 gig for 50 days now.
If you are going to send it to sony make sure to remove your HD. I would bet that one of their repair steps is to restore the system to default settings