Good to know about the customer service experience; I bought a 320gb external Seagate in January after going back & forth about which brand to buy. If you read all of the reviews, you'll never buy anything because you read horror stories for everything out there. Anyway, I finally said 'screw it,' and I bought it... absolutely perfect right out of the box. If you're like me, just go out and buy one before it's too late.