well I guess I just prefer using the touchpad. I'm very used to it at this point.
I can understand the "used to it" argument!
I hated the touchpad on my new laptop when I first bought it- because I had never used a touchpad before. So, everytime I went to use the mouse, I'd subconcously start fiddling around with the area between the g and h key where the trackpoint would be (both my older laptops used a trackpoint stick). I even went so far as to buy a portable wireless mouse just so I could avoid using the touchpad.
Now, though, it's not so bad. in fact, I was bored and decided to fire up my old satellite 440CDX and found myself trying to use a non-existent touchpad on it instead of the trackpoint! Sort of funny, really.
Anyway, re the original problem- One thing you can try (to narrow down wether the problem is a software or a hardware one) is to boot a Linux LiveCD. opinions differ on the best one to choose but it's not really that important. Personally I'd recommend
Linux Mint, if only because I know it to work by default with my touchpad. If the touchpad <doesn't> work, then it's either a problem with the actual touchpad hardware, or maybe somehow a setting got flipped in the BIOS. Another thing you can try is completely removing all touchpad related devices and software, and reboot, and see if windows can use the touchpad by treating it just like a mouse.