The Pandemic Soul

*dies*

In early 2004, my Jeep was broken into and about two dozen of my CD’s were stolen. I decided that from then-on, I wouldn’t keep my “real” CD’s in my car anymore. Instead, I started ripping all of my music to an external hard-drive on my computer, and then burning a copy to keep in my car. This way, I could listen to music in my car without fear of my CD’s being stolen, and I could also listen to all my music on my computer.

Flash-forward to a few months ago, when my external hard-drive started making a horrendous, soul-destroying grinding sound. I’ve never heard anything like this coming from a small machine anymore. I put up with it for a few days, since it would only happen on-and-off. Eventually, I started to get so frustrated with it, I actually hit the hard-drive. (It survived, too — and kept grinding away!)

I called the company (AcomData) and spoke with someone at their technical support number. Here’s how the conversation went:

Me: “Hi, I’m having a problem with my hard-drive.”
–> I held the phone up to the hard-drive, at this point, which was grinding a dentist’s drill at a lower frequency.
Me: (having to speak loudly over the noise) “Can you hear it?”
Rep: “Hear what?”
–> Held the phone up to the hard-drive again, with my ear to it. I can’t even think in full sentences at this point, the sound is so disturbing.
Me: “That noise! The hard-drive! It’s making a grinding noise!”
Rep: “I’m sorry, I don’t hear anything.”
–> I give up on life, and this tactic…
Me: “Okay, whatever. This hard-drive is making a loud, very loud grinding noise. How can I go about fixing it?:
Rep: “What’s the serial number?”
–> I read it to him and he actually laughs at me.
Rep: “That drive is over four years old. I can’t help you.”
Me: “You mean, your drive is defective, but because it’s a few years old you can’t do anything at all?”
Rep: “Nothing.”
Me: “Can you hold on? It’s going to sound like I’m hanging up, but I’m not.”
–> I hang up.

So, I decide it’s time for a new hard-drive. And despite my cordial interaction with AcomData, and despite the fact that their drives are selling for a very competitive price, I’m going to go with Maxtor.

I buy a 300gb Maxtor hard-drive, and transfer my music, all my backups, and all the rest of high file-size type stuff you would keep on an external hard-drive *cough* to this new drive. Yay. It works perfectly, and is much quieter.

Yesterday, my world dissolved around me when I tried playing some music, and suddenly WinAmp just stopped responding. Ohgodohgodohgod.

I called Maxtor’s tech support and had a much more helpful discussion with one of their reps, but was told I’d have to try a new cable and a different computer to make sure it was the drive before they would do anything. I have done that, and it’s definitely the drive.

WTF IS UP WITH EXTERNAL DRIVES?! These things are packed in like bullet-proof cases, and yet I’ve now gone through my second drive already?!

Not to mention I’m going through withdrawals from my inability to listen to any music, since it’s all stored on that drive and you can’t get more than a few minutes into a song before it locks up for a minute or more. I didn’t realize until today just how dependent I am on avoiding silence! I have no idea how we’re going to fix this problem, since I’m sure they’re going to want me to send the drive back to them before I get another. I’ll update on Monday when I call their tech support.

You can see just how much I listen to, on my Last.fm page. (Don’t be fooled by Yanni’s high rank — I’ve listed to one CD of his every single night I’ve slept at home for over four years now. I never listen to him any other time though, I swear!)