MORE ON HARD DRIVES: In response to this morning’s post, reader Chuck Allen emails:

You linked to the cheap 2TB Seagate drive. But for just $15 more you can get this 2TB drive that gets *much* better reviews, and will work with a Mac.

I don’t own it, but was researching backup drives this AM.

And reader Stephen Johnson writes: “I’ve had one of these wonderously cheap (and yes, Chinese made) 1 TB drives fail on me. I didn’t have it backed up, and yes, that’s my fault — but restoring the data set me back about two grand: about twenty times the cost of the drive. Electronics — computers and their component parts in particular — *are* getting fantastically cheap but they’re still far from as infallible as, say, blenders or lawn mowers. Until then, I’d say don’t overlook some hidden costs directly related to lack of quality. Not to mention that we basically *have* to upgrade our PCs every 2-3 years.” Yeah. You always need to backup, though. The only hard-drive failure I’ve had in recent years was a supposedly super-reliable and more-expensive hard drive I used in the audio studo computer. Luckily, it was backed up.