IBM hard disks now renowned for their overwhelming failure rate. I've been lucky so far. I really should get around to backing up at least my more important stuff soon. However, the drives aren't making FunnyNoises yet, so maybe they'll last another while yet...

YOU THINK IBM IS RENOWNED??? I AM RENOWNED!!! I OWN FAILURE RATES! IF IT'S WORKING - DAMN THEN PH34R ME!!! KNEEL DOWN AND BR34K!!! --shanksta

That comment above, from "shanksta", is from a dude I worked with at [Net Integration] in Toronto. He ended up breaking a fair bit of stuff. Some of it was actually physically breaking pieces of equipment, but there was also a lot of stuff like interrupting tests that were running, or wanting to, or whatever. Due to the frequency of this kind of breakage, and the dood's last name, we called it "shanking" whenever something was broken. But it was all in good fun, and the dood was actually a pretty decent worker and came up with some cool stuff.

Anyway, the drives did start making FunnyNoises, and then one of them was very nearly pooched (quite often locking my machine when accessing certain sectors). I managed to get my stuff off it, and I am now the proud owner of a Maxtor 120GB DiamondMax? ultra9, which seems pretty decent. But, I mean, it's a hard drive.. they're not exactly very exciting. I figured the other DeskStar would die soon enough.