OT: Maxtor drive goes under

Interesting problem. I remember when I was fixing IBM PC's back in the mists of time we opened up an old 5MB Seagate drive and managed to get it spinning - with our fingers! It continued working quite reliably thereafter for quite some time, IIRC. However, there was another drive we tried that one, but it turned out it had suffered the worst drive crash in history - the RW head was literally *buried* in the disk, as if someone had taken a hammer to it. But it was a completely sealed unit beforehand. If you're desperate, you may try prying it open and twigging the platters. But it may well be more than just the stickies - my experience of late has been that drives are much better protected from that occurrance. Best of luck with that! Dennis