i feel for you eltano1 i really do....i wont buy hitachi aka ibm....nor western digital, for the same reason. my last western digital failed the day after warranty was up, no signs or nothing, just died....wd would do nothing about it, said it was out of warranty period, well in my job we have things like that happen and if it is a case such as mine or yours, we make it right and warranty anyway, for the reason that if it failed that soon after expiration, there were problems to begin with usually, and werent caught soon enough...not everyone recognizes the warning signs of defective items, just my 2 cents.....