After years of avoiding the anticipated hassle, with some spare time on my hands, I decided to go through the process of saving / deleting items on the HD, downloading / performing the update from 2.003, and re-installing all the plug-ins.
Gotta report that it wasn't that bad at all. Part of my hesitation stemmed from not being the most "techy" of us here, and not wanting to have to deal with any machine or PC screw-ups along the way... even though I knew that if something were to go awry, the Planet peeps would bail me out... and thus, I felt empowered! ;>)
So... in the spirit of assisting others out there, here's what I did:
Saved and / or deleted projects after reviewing them. Note that project deletions (erase) can only be done on the LCD if your OS is pre-2.005. (Hate that tiny screen! STRONGLY recommend the VGA upgrade to those that still haven't jumped up to it... would make a great Christmas / holiday gift idea. Absolutely love my 19" display!)
Reformatted the HD, with physical format and surface scan selected. Check the Owner's Manual for step-by-step directions. That took exactly 5 hours on my clean 40 Gb drive. Did this in the evening. No issues were encountered. Shutdown the VS, and went to bed.
Downloaded the OS update from the Roland site this morning. Reviewed the Read Me file, containing the instructions for installing the software.
While pressing the USB button on the VS, I powered on the machine. (I keep a cable plugged into the VS USB slot all the time, due to reports from others here that the slot is somewhat delicate and subject to probs from repeated inserting / removing the connector.)
Then proceeded to connect the other end of the USB cable to the PC. The VS's directories then appeared in the My PC screen of the computer. I copied the PRG update file and pasted it in the first directory displayed... for me that was the "F" directory. I then hit "Enter" on the VS.
When the update concluded, the LCD displayed "Version 2.005." I then did a "hard" shut-off of the VS... the normal shutdown procedure was not available.
After waiting 15 seconds or so, I powered on the VS. Immediately, the VGA monitor came to life.
Next task was to re-install the plug-ins. Start with the VS8F-3 set-up CD. Step-by-step directions are on Page 15 of the VS8F-3 Manual (also available on Roland's site). The set-up disk took around 4 or 5 minutes to install. The rest of the plugs re-installed much faster (less than 2 minutes each)... see also Page 16... but installation for these is basically the same procedure.
Reminder: If you haven't backed up all your plugs, do so.
When done, I checked that all my plugs were available in the Effects screen.
That's it... all worked out great!
Hope this helps someone.
Sincere thanks to all posters that have shared so much great info here and helped so many of us through the years.