The SMART move is to get a new hard disk
smartctl version 5.32 Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION === SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 5 Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds: ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000b 100 100 032 Pre-fail Always - 109731 2 Throughput_Performance 0x0005 100 100 020 Pre-fail Offline - 0 3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0007 100 100 025 Pre-fail Always - 2 4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0012 094 094 016 Old_age Always - 3470 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 024 Pre-fail Always - 0 7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000b 100 100 020 Pre-fail Always - 316 8 Seek_Time_Performance 0x0005 100 100 019 Pre-fail Offline - 0 9 Power_On_Seconds 0x0012 001 001 020 Old_age Always FAILING_NOW 22221h+26m+43s 10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 020 Pre-fail Always - 1 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0012 080 080 020 Old_age Always - 3062 198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0013 100 100 000 Pre-fail Always - 0 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x000a 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x000b 100 092 020 Pre-fail Always - 1992 It would appear that I have a geriatric hard disk! Good thing a new one is arriving soon and I will get to put True Image to the test. I like that I am replacing a 6GB hard disk with a 320GB one. It means that my backup problem just got a whole lot worse!