cmendla - 8:01 pm on Feb 16, 2009 (gmt 0)

If you are running Windows, go to the Control Panel, admin Programs, Event viewer, System. Then page through looking for disk errors. if you see a lot of Disk errors marked with a red icon, then your drive is probably failing rapidly. There can be reasons for yellow disk warnings that aren't as serious.

Some of the HD companies will recover data for you. Unfortunately the cost starts at a grand. They will look at the drive and then let you know what they can recover. You usually only pay if you choose to recover the files.

I would back stuff up ASAP.

Also, I went to one of those Network addressable storage units. Set the 1tb model up for mirroring to give me 1/2tb. That way (1) a single drive failure won't kill me and (2) if my machine fails, the data should still be there. You still have to back up the NAS devices.