I haven't tried squarely beating the hard drive yet, but I willl definitely give that a try when I get home! The hard drive is still under warranty, so I believe the other suggestions (replacing the circuitry, etc) would probably void any chance of getting the HD replaced.. but I will try this before sending it back to the manufaturer for a replace...

(Sure would be nice to get all those MP3s back without re-ripping........)