It's unlikely that you had sticktion on the HD. You have to leave them for very long periods of time for it to seize up and it mainly affects old drives. I would have the cable and header checked out first. If they prove to be okay then you should replace the HD as you shouldn't trust it with your data anymore.

That's what everyone tells me, but I'm like a HD magnet.. I;'ll have PC drives sieze up on me after a month. For a period a few years back, I went thru about 5 PC drives in the same time period. (At first I got them replaced form the manufacturer. Then I gave up on them and got another brand. That one lasted a little longer.) I soon became really adept at reloading the OS and getting my PC up to working condition in as little time as possible. I soon came to realize that if I don't turn my PC off, they'll last longer.
In my Empegs, I think I've had about 4 different drives that were either dead or on the verge of being so troublesome for the player. (Case in Point: v2.00 was awful to me on one drive I have. Screen would freeze, audio cut in and out, 2-4 times per song. Sometimes it'd completely lock up. With v3.00a3, I still get screen pauses, but the audio never cuts out. This is the drive I replaced the one I just fixed with, and the new one worked BEAUTIFULLY with both v2.00 and v3.00a3. At least, until yesterday.)
Now, I will concede that it was probably NOT a frozen drive, and just a coinkidink that it started working after I did that. But, I was out of ideas. Later today I'm going to be opening it back up and grab a magnifying glass, and look at the IDE header. I know it's NOT the IDE cable - it's very tight.)

Drives just do NOT like me, in general. I'm curious to see how the Karma holds up to my jinx.
Me.