On a similar note, my old desktop system, which has several hardrives of
various sizes and ages, has int he last week or two started making on odd
sound that I am guessing is the read/write head being pulled back as if to
power down, then let back out again. It is clearly not affecting the drive
I am running off of, but I do not know of any tool or system monitor that
would help me isolate which drive is going. I must apologize in advance for
having not yet even attempted to research this on the web. When Mike
brought up the general topic, I decided to chime in and see if anyone
remembers something that might be useful off the top of their heads. If
not, I should be able to tell when it goes hard failure, and it is unlikely
to take my main partition with it, so no big deal. Thanks again in advance
for the help.

Mike

-- 
But he lives on in a Horcrux named Siri