I bought two (2) 1TB WD1002FAEX Caviar Black hard drives earlier this year (2010.) Everything went well and I was “enjoying” my dual-boot Windows XP / Windows 7 set up. Then, on Dec 26, 2010, I was “surprised” to see my computer having problems with the “normal” boot to the dual-boot menu. Then, I was “scared” when the Windows 7 boot took an hour to start. Once I was in my Windows 7, I accessed CrystalDiskInfo and my drive 0 (Windows XP boot and BCD boot menu) was indicating a WARNING. I then started Data Life Guard and attempted to see the SMART status, which immediately returned a “failed” message. Spent the remainder of my Christmas “break” on copying my files off the drive 0.
Besides starting the RMA process, what other things can I do?