In "Backing up with FireVue" in TidBITS #691, I wrote about the Granite Digital FireVue SMART Hot Swap Drive System, each tray of which includes an LCD front panel that reports constantly on the status of the drive inside. Until last week, those reports had been entirely academic, reporting on throughput and similar statistics. But when I swapped in a tray that had been my off-site backup the previous week, the LCD suddenly started flashing "SMART Drive Failure!" And indeed, the drive wouldn't mount, wouldn't respond to any utilities, and was, for all practical purposes, dead. I'm a little annoyed, but since that drive was merely one of multiple backup sets, I probably didn't lose anything that isn't backed up elsewhere. The only real loss, then, is the drive itself, and it's possible, even likely, that the drive is still under warranty and will be replaced if I can find the time to complain to Maxtor.

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07295