Ugggg.... In my rush to spin up the drive, I had neglected to inspect the bottom heads for the fixed platter. They are, after all, almost hidden in the bottom. :[ This time I removed the bottom of the drive and looked underneath. There are the obvious telltale streaks on the bottom surface of the bottom (fixed) platter; it doesn't look gouged, but streaked nontheless. The bottom heads (which can only really be inspected from the bottom of the drive with the bottom cover off) don't look to be very happy. Definite oxide residue, but the heads at least LOOK structurally sound. Since the bottom fixed platter doesn't have servo data on it, I'm hoping a new bottom platter won't cost much more than a removable platter. Then I'm hoping that since the noise was never that pronounced that perhaps the heads will be OK after thorough cleaning. Don't know much about this - is that possible? I know, I'm probably hoping unrealistically. This pretty well trashes my hopes for TSB, at least until I can fix it or find another 7900A. On the bright side, it's pretty obvious that this damage was done before I got the drive. Small consolation ;) Jay West