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ahhhhh - looks like I spoke too soon

I have been using it this morning, and the HD has now started buzzing like an angry wasp.

I am both sad and disgusted with myself: I thought I had treated this unit with kid gloves - obviously not. Now I will have to start looking for a hard disk I suspect.

Does the buzzing get worse if you gently squeeze the case from front to back? If so you might be suffering from battery swell -- and replacing the battery rather than the disk might solve the problem. Dismantle the unit (search on Riovolution for instructions) and look at the battery: it should be absolutely flat-sided. If it's bulging, do not re-assemble or use the unit without replacing it. We've not had one burst into flame yet, but it's the same type of fault that blew up all those Apple and Dell laptops a year or so ago.

Battery swell isn't caused by absence (or presence) of kid gloves -- the batteries plain aren't meant to do that, and a certain number must just be faulty.

Peter