Cheap Harddrives

Refurb HDD??? Surely you jest. I'd sooner buy a refurb pacemaker. Bite the bullet. You just found out what happens when you push a HDD too far.

if this is the same 1tb you just purchased last year it should be under warranty. if not check with the vendor some hard drive had 5 years and some had 3 years. it may still be under warranty.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
70.00 for new drive.
refurb going to have a shorter warranty. could have heads replaced or the bearing or logic board. or it could be a returned drive that tested good in house and then fails on you.

It' a IOega Simpledrive (with hitachi internal) - I know the IOdrive warranty expired, i don't know if the internal hitachi has any sort of warranty)

Refurbished hard drives are not recommended. Almost all reviews on refurb drives are all bad as in the drive doesn't work or they fail. Your not going to get cheap hard drives unless you use eBay.. but without proper tools and experience you may just want to get a new hdd all together. Shop around for one if you can't get the current one replaced. Also getting one with more then a year warranty is generally your best bet. If your using this hard drive strictly for storage, you may as well just get a blu ray burner or a dvd burner then burn all your data that way.

If possible, buying an internal hard drive is cheaper and less likely you'll run into hard drive failure.. just make sure the wattage on your tower is enough to supply another hard drive.