[ Thanks to Steve
York for this link. ]
“Everyone’s worst nightmare; the normal comforting hum of your
computer is disturbed by clicking, pranging, banging… It happens
to everyone because it’s inevitable (hard drives are mechanical, as
sure as a car will break down your hard drive will fail
eventually). However, no matter how often you see it you never
quite get used to it happening, the heartache of all the files you
lose forever because you were ‘just about to back it up, honestly.’
This is not a matter of explaining to you how you can best avoid
data loss or how to protect against your hard drive dying, this is
an article outlining how Ubuntu (or any other LiveCD available
distro) could save your life…”