Seagate FreeAgent Problem (Apparently) Solved

If you're wondering why I haven't posted any pictures for a while, it's because the drive with my photos on it was on the fritz. I have a Seagate 750GB FreeAgent drive. It started acting a little flakey, having problems with large writes (aka camera downloads) and the problem just got worse as time went on. Note to the wise: if your drive starts acting flakey, copy everying off as soon as possible!! I stopped putting new stuff on there but didn't get everything off in a timely manner. The data transfers, meanwhile, got more and more flakey until finally they didn't transfer at all. I tried calling Seagate who sold me a useless piece of $120 software that did absolutely nothing (yes, it was a hardware problem with the USB interface but I hadn't figured that out yet). I tried calling disk recovery specialists who wanted to charge anywhere from $800 to $2800. I tried searching Google a little further and came up with the idea of trying the Firewire interface instead of the USB interface since the data appeared to be intact and the data transfer seemed to be the sole problem. I swapped out the USB interface module for the FireWire interface module (when I finally found it buried in a drawer) and voila, everything is working just fine. I'm busy moving files over as we speak. It will be some hours before everything is transferred over so I have my fingers crossed. So far, anyhow, everything is working flawlessly. Now that the disk appears to be working again, the question is do I keep on using the Seagate? Remember the old saying, "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!" Thoughts?

Meanwhile, in all the commotion, I bought a new computer and a new external drive from HP. The photo editor software, as you might guess, does not work on Vista so I'll have to upgrade. So, for you photo fans, my apologies but no photos until everything is moved over and I get a photo editor of some sort installed. I'm still taking pictures, mind you. I have some fun ones from Chicago including pictures of Lucy the T-Rex. Of course, they're just building up on the new hard disk. Both the new internal and the new external are 750GB big so hopefully that will last a while and I won't be in the awkward position of having to write to only one of the disks again. I tried to get a TByte drive but HP has this nifty little portable drive slot and drives that fit it that only go up to 750GB. It's going to have to do. It's that or I go easy on the camera...