🚀 go-pugleaf

Excuse the naive question, though I am new both to disk problems and
system panics.  Earlier in the week, my external 1.2G (Seagate
Imprimis) boot drive began to emit a high pitched whine; the enclosure
was warm to the touch, so I somewhat anxiously logged out and powered
off.  On following days the drive again seemed to be discernably
louder than usual, though performance and the level of seek noise
appeared to be unaffected.  Last night, however, I got my first system
panic; I was able to continue from the ROM monitor, and the ensuing
reboot brought me back to a login prompt.  The boot process included a
long and noisy "checking disks" segment, though no errors or bad
sectors were reported.  I was able to login immediately afterwards,
and again today, with no evident ill effects of the panic.

My question then is this: Is the panic a likely symptom of early drive
problems, or is it more probable that the two effects are unrelated?
The drive is under a year old and still under warranty, though since
moving to Oz it has been in an non-climate controlled office that may
reach between 75 and 80F on some days.

Thanx in advance for any information/advice.

/jim

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Jim Blevins			 	jblevins@{uniwa,cs}.uwa.edu.au
Centre for Linguistics			phone: +61-9-381-1515
University of Western Australia 	fax:   +61-9-380-1062
Nedlands, W.A. 6009