On Sun January 21 2007 12:19 pm, Rick Sewill wrote: > This happened, more than once, to me. > > Each time, it meant the hard drive was bad. > > The laptop was under warranty. > > The laptop manufacturer sent a replacement, each time. > > Each hard drive seemed to fail every twelve to eighteen months. > > I have no explanation why the hard drive kept failing. I maintain lots of computers, including lots of laptops as one aspect of my job. When drives start clicking, it's time to try and save what you can, and get everything off, and fast. Depending on circumstances, I will run spinrite on the drive in question, but that involves a lot of complex gambles/guesses and set of circumstances considerations - spinrite can tip the drive over the edge, so I'm real cautious. I'm convinced that laptop hd failures are in large measure caused by heat - poor engineering design in cooling provisions combined with drives that run too hot are my current no. 1 suspect. I have had the same experiences as you... -- Claude Jones Brunswick, MD, USA