Yes, Paul, your marbles are still fully intact.
And I appreciated your assistance.
Words from the grand master of Empeg disk upgrades are definitely given heed.
(I'm still in awe of someone possesing multiple 160GB Empegs.)
I had done as you suggested and re-run the builder, producing similar
results as before on the stress test.
I opted to install the developer image after that just to see what happened.
Result: player either didn't work or worked in a manner which clearly
indicated something was badly awry (can't remember which now).

That's when I decided that those particular log outputs do indeed indicate
a failing of the stress test and exchanged the drive.

Now, all is good with the world.

/music