OK, it’s like this: Originally I had one 80 GB disk, one 120 GB disk and a 160 GB one that stopped working three months after I bought it (damn Maxtor). Last week I got a 250 GB Seagate Barracuda so I’d finally have some space (all the other disks were full).

The new disk arrived, I ghosted the 80 one on the 250 (after quite a few crashes and hangs, which after a while stopped), and I installed the 80 on my fileserver, while still keeping the files as a backup. Three days ago I decided the new disk was working well enough, so I formatted the old one and went on my way, when suddenly yesterday the 120 spun down and hung the entire system. I removed and replugged the cable and it worked, but as a precaution I copied everything on it to the 250 (which still had 30 GB left). I decided that I’d delete it when I needed the space if the other disk was working fine.

Today, as I was working, suddenly my PC froze. I rebooted, chkdsk ran and found an error which it claimed to have fixed. From that moment on, the Windows partition is unrecognised. The other two partitions seem to be OK, but there’s an unreadable sector on the disk (I suspect the partition table is on it, that’s my luck). I ran Seagate Tools and it said that the disk is defective and I should return it (it has a 5 year warranty), only I can’t, because all my data is on it.

So, here’s the plan. On monday I’ll send them the 160, they’ll (hopefully) send me a new one, I’ll copy my data on it and send the 250 and get a new one, reinstall everything and be happy. During that week I will be on my laptop, lamenting my fate (and probably studying, now that the opportunity arose). So, if you care enough to have read this far, that’s where I’ll be. Wish me luck.

Update: I spoke to the shop’s service department, and they told me to send the disks for replacement. I will first send the 160 in, copy the files to the new one, then send the 250 while I reinstall windows on the 160.