boehmb

RMA it. All the recent WD drives I've dealt with have no errors in that category.

Completely normal for a Seagate. I have used Seagates for years and see the same results. All are still working perfectly.

Automatic Acoustic Management

Sorry, here's a link: http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=77150

The Antec MX-1. Best external enclosure I've ever used.

I've been using two extenal USB2 drives with a Linksys NSLU2 Network Storage Link for over two years now. The two drives, one a Samsung, the other a Seagate, have been on contunuously in cheap enclosures with no fan for the full two years. They both get mildly warm to the touch and I have had no problems. I have had no problems with other USB2 drives plugging them in when already running, or plugging them in and then turning them on. Just be sure to unmount the disk before disconnecting when you are done.

That's typical for a Seagate and does not indicate a problem. It seems to be the way Seagate implements it's SMART reporting. Don't worry.

Those are typical readings for a Seagate. Don't worry about it. They implement SMART values differently than other manufacturers for raw read error rate, hardware ECC recovered and others. Go to Seagate's site and use their own Seatools program (download it or do the short test online) to verify.

Hey Frank, where have you been?

Any external Firewire drive recognized by OSX's Disk Utility should work fine as a bootable back up drive. I've used several external drives with various chipsets with good results. I use Disk Utility's restore function to make a clone of my startup disk as a bootable backup once a month.

Where did you find those drives. I'm definately interested, but haven't heard anything yet about them.

System files that are in use or are written to during the degramentation process will remain fragmented. All my Windows computers leave a few fragged files after the defrag process whether I'm using Window's defrag utility or Diskkeeper Professional. I wouldn't worry about it. They are ususally Windows log files and temp files written during the defrag process.

I would recommend a ventilated enclosure no matter what drive goes inside. The AMS Venus DS3 enclosures for 3.5" drives are rugged, and the fan is virtually silent. NewEgg carries them, and here is the manufacture's site: http://www.american-media.com/

A S.M.A.R.T. warning of reallocated sectors is bad. Back up immediately and replace the drive.

The digital readout is not fast enough to measure the inrush current. I have another brand of the same type of meter. Is it possible to pull another circuit to the room with the laser printer? I have two circuits in mine, and have the computers on one and the printers/fax/copier on the other. If you can pull another circuit, do not share the existing neutral. Pull another one for the new circuit. Good luck.