I'm sorry you're reading my comments as an attack. They are not meant to be. I am merely trying to be helpful and point out what I consider to be helpful advice that some do not have a similar perspective on. As I said before, you will do what is right by you. I understand that. I'm not thinking any less of you as a person for buying USB instead of FireWire. But I want you to be well informed about the decision you are making.

Unfortunately, text can be taken in so many ways that there's really no possible way to predict how another person's internal filter will interpret what I wrote. So I'm sorry if you found my comments hostile. They were never intended as such.

At the same time, consider that there are nearly 7,000 members of this forum. I have been the moderator for about 2 or 3 years now and the forum pre-dates my leadership by at least 2 years. Yes, technology changes over time and some of the info that has been covered in this forum is dated. But in the past couple months we have had the "what hard drive should I buy" question come up so frequently that it is clear that a majority of question askers do not even attempt to solve their own problems, but simply want the quick, easy solution of having someone tell them what they should do/buy.

Note that there are, I would estimate, about 20-30 folks in this forum who actively attempt to help the remaining 6970 with their questions, problems, and comments. I would say that's even a high estimate. Personally, I don't really have much time to spend answering questions anymore. I used to spend on order of 2-4 hours in this Tribe every day. I'm sure many long-time members have noticed I've barely been on here for more than 15-30 minutes each day over the past year, if even that much. Sure, I don't have to answer every question. Someone will probably answer if I don't. But if the same questions keep coming up over and over again and are easily answerable by using Tribe's search function, doesn't that make the whole forum less useful for everyone?

I'm not saying you're post was unnecessary. Aside from the slightly over dramatic subject line, you had a question you didn't know how to answer, were likely in a bit of a panic, and you received fairly quick help about using DiskWarrior. That same scenario has happened many times on this forum. Sometimes the answer isn't "Get DiskWarrior" and might be more involved. But the folks who are on here as much as their minimal free time allows sometimes get a little tetchy when easily-found solutions are not taken advantage of.

I can't tell you how many times I've had to answer the question of "is there an application than can do x"? Some of the less tactful members have answered simply with the URL of Google in the past.

I hope that what you'll take away from this experience is that search functions are here to help you just as much as we are. And the knowledgeable people here will try their best to get you an intelligent, non-demeaning answer to your questions so long as you respect the fact that we have very limited time.

Please don't take this as an attack on you. It's a good lesson for pretty much everyone on this forum.

So let's move on.

*chuckles*

Don't you understand how internet forums work? Especially computer-oriented forums? N00BS get harassed, hazed, whatever you wanna call it, if they don't follow simple, probably clearly stated rules before asking a question. Yes, we all understand you're not well-versed in the intricacies of your mac, and losing your data is obvious a HUGE deal. But long time contributors get sick of answering the same questions over and over again, when your answer could easily have been found by a simple search or by reading this tribe's FAQ. Again, that's all clearly stated here.

So if you're going to be lazy, don't expect a rosy response. Granted, Mr K is hilariously antagonistic, but don't take it personally. I'm almost positive this has nothing to do with you personally.