Aaarrgh! Seagate FreeAgent Xtreme 1.5TB external drive "click of death"

[Donuts]

Hi,

I have a Seagate FreeAgent Xtreme 1.5TB external drive.

I guess many people are familiar with the problems affecting 1.5TB Seagate internal drives. The other day my external drive started making a repeated loud clicking sound, and "freezing" (not accessible by the computer for a while). The drive had been working fine since the start of the year, so I know this isn't normal. The Seagate Manager utility says it's in need of service.

Has anyone else had an external Seagate drive go like that? Chances are, the external drives are just as susceptible to the problem as internal ones. But Seagate don't provide firmware updates for their external drives, so you have to return it to Seagate if (or when) it goes wrong.

What sucks: Seagate won't send a replacement before receiving the faulty one back (I'd be happy to give my card details so they could charge me if the faulty one wasn't returned). So I'll have to buy another drive in order to back up the faulty one before returning it, rather than just copying data from the faulty one to the replacement. Do any HD manufacturers' warranty replacement policies allow for a replacement to be sent before receiving the faulty drive back?

With that in mind, does anyone have recommendations for a 1.5TB or 2TB internal drive (to be fitted in a generic external USB/eSATA case)? Quiet and cool-running would be good. I'm thinking maybe WD or Samsung this time...

[Skulltrail]

As for the stand-in drive:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2TB-H...rpm-32MB-Cache

According to Tom's charts it's averagely cool but above averagely quiet and about the fastest 2TB drive around. It also has one of the best £ : GB ratios around at £98.04