I have an 80GB Diamond Max Maxtor that I mounted into an external USB2 case with fan. This has been my primary archive drive for my digital picture albums as well as extensive mp3 files. I've used this drive in this configuration for over a year with tremendous results until yesterday when upon boot up, I kept hearing this little song... actually my 5 year old son was the one that heard it. I called my friend Brian (my computer guru) and left him a message on his cell phone of the sound that was coming from the drive. He e-mailed me today, said he googled "maxtor beeping" and found this thread. I just got done with my "tapping session" and the drive is now functioning fine. I am going to burn everything to DVD and probably replace the drive, but this sure saved an awful lot of irreplaceable family pictures. Just a note, I had to "tap" with a little more authority to affect the fix. I had the drive in my left hand "singing" and I "thumped it" with the heel of my right hand, lightly the first time, then a little harder the second and then I felt it spin up and my system immediately recognized the drive. Thanks so much for the all the help this thread has provided, you guys are the greatest! Cyberbach