Thanks for the advice...
After trying to explain the problem to tech support (twice) it turns out that it's a bad sector, so I'm getting a new one. I just have to copy everything (again, argh). I just hope it holds out until I get home tomorrow night. I've made it to 450 hours this time around on Flight-Sim!!! If I lose that...
WD's used to be the drive of choice until the "Caviar" days. I have many WD desktop drives, in a stack in the basement -- waiting for teardown to use the magnets (from back in my PC repair business days) -- back when 1GB was HUGE! I never have had a problem with a laptop drives until now, which threw me for a loop all of the sudden.
Carlos -- I would totally get the Fujitsu if I could, but whatever they send is what I get under warranty. It's likely going to be a 120GB/5400RPM
They tease me with a nice replacement system and a 250GB HDD, it fails, and they go back to the original purchase for specs and cut 100 GB. And so it goes.
Essentially, is there a laptop brand that can handle "the road"? I travel for work, and my laptop goes where I go -- whether that's at 37,000 ft. or in a rental car somewhere in Iowa. I'm not rough with them by any means, so it's frustrating. I went through a few HPs that did better, but Fujitsu systems seem to superior overall from work experience.
Live from Wichita, Kansas -- RH77, EcoModder News.