A little over a year into the life of my first ever laptop—a Powerbook G4, if you’re curious—the hard drive straight up died on me, seemingly for no reason. Enough stuff was backed up elsewhere that it wasn’t exactly a tragedy; the worst part was the fact that Apple made me pay to replace it. But the replacement hard drive outlasted that laptop, even surviving when a kicked cup of water burned out the logic board; I just took the hard drive out of the burnt-out body and popped it into another Powerbook body. It’s probably still working today, ready to be plugged in and play Tha Carter III as soon as you uncover it from my parent’s basement. [Read more…]