I had similar luck last year. I started with a 10GB empeg. I then added a 20GB hitachi. After about a month, the hitachi quit working on me. So i got a new 20GB travelstar. After about 2 months with that, the original 10GB went bad. I almost never leave it in the car, and it hasn't been tossed around or anything so its not because of any misuse to it. I think it was just bad luck. It worked fine for about a year on the original 10GB and now its been working fine for about a year on the 20GB travelstar.