problems with seagate freeagent, continued

i've been having issues with my hard drive. seagate freeagents are known across the internets (for whatever that is worth) to have overheating problems. i know i should have backed up my data first, but damn! who wants to buy me a second hard drive? i'm unemployed.

of course, data recovery is FAR more expensive than buying a second hard drive. the cheap data recovery is more expensive, actually.

so i took my hard drive to progressive tech on rosevelt. $55 in the hole for diagnostics told me that i need to get a cleanroom. that would be $1500 out of pocket if seagate doesn't help me.

i've been in a panic because i store all my video on it. my first documentary film that i spent this last year working on is on that thing. again, i would have backed it up if i only had the resources. i had no idea that my hard drive had potential to go so awry.

and ask yourself this. if one goes bad, how can i guarantee that both hard drives won't fail on me? the folks at seagate decided that comfort and stealth silent operation was more important than reliability. there is no real cooling system. you can almost fry an egg on the thing when its on.

i've called three times now and spent almost ten hours on the phone. i spend most of that time on hold. i keep my cool and i make demands. you can't do anything? give me someone who can. i raised my voice only once. that was when some manager told me he was sorry for the inconvenience.

inconvenience? my film is in limbo! i know it is not gone but it might as well be. this is no inconvenience. this is a fucking tragedy. children are dying in africa and i can't watch my film, goddamnit!

someone is going to call me tomorrow. lets hope i can say "seagate stuck by my side and made my film possible."

if anybody has any suggestions out there, i would love to hear them.