click-click-click-click: hard drive crashes

Yes, the inevitable happened. The 3-year old hard drive in my PC first made this click-click-click sound that lasted about 20 seconds, and then it was finished.

I've been backing most of the important docs with an external Western Digital Passport 120 GB USB 2.0 Hard Drive, as well as U3-compliant 2 GB thumb drive. I usually don't carry around a laptop, but use someone else's PC wherever I go, since the U3 will run its own programs including Firefox. All my contact information and e-mails are stored offline in my Yahoo account, so that wasn't a problem.

The WD Passport drive comes with software that automates the backup process, and it even provides an option to make sure you're backing up your e-mails if you're using standalone software such as Outlook.

The contacts on my Treo 700p (which Sprint has replaced with the 755p) were transferred back to the new HD once I reinstalled its desktop program.

By having to open the PC case, it provided the opportunity to check all the fans (I have burned out a processor because a fan failed) and clear all the dust bunnies.

The online software I wanted reload immediately was Zone Alarm for virus and spyware control, Firefox with the Tab Mix Plus add-on (I use it to stack 3 rows of 33 tabs so I call view them all at once), and Adobe Acrobat reader. CCleaner is also a great for deleting cached files picked up while using the Web.