I'm willing to bet a lot of those drive failures were Quantum brand hard drives. They tend to have a bit of a stiction problem after 12-18 months.
One handy tip is if you have a Quantum that starts playing up, mount it upside down in the same spot. This tends to give it another 6-12 months of life. I flip mine every 6 months now, and have been doing it for the last 2 years
Another way is to leave the case open with a screwdriver sitting in the bottom of the tower. That way the bastard pc knows that if it screws up, its gonna get attacked
Just my $0.02, but it could just be the cardamine talking.
Nil Mortifi Sine Lucre
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