There's one possibility that I think that hasn't been addressed yet.  Why
not buy another physical drive?  They're very dependable(of course), not
affected by click-of-death, etc.  Most people don't use all the the
physical space in their computers, and setting up a secondary drive is
really just a matter of making a secondary partition (on a PC running
Dos/Win95 anyway. I know little about the workings of Macs). 

I was buying a 386 for a friend, and ended up paying $35 for a system with
a 340M SCSI HD.  Even if he decided to throw the system in the trash, and
just keep the drive, he ends up paying about $.10 per Meg, which is about
what you get for the Zip drives, right?  But, they're much more reliable.

-Natsume Ranma Ranma
-------
The sardines weren't worth the trouble.  A few more shots, then 
Ryoga-san would overheat and explode.  Ducking around a corner, 
I managed to lose him as I entered the ramshackle residence of 
my Anime supplier.

One look at his face and I knew that I was betrayed.  "Tell me."
I insisted.  He refused, so I slammed him against the wall.
"Last chance.  Where can Ranma-Ranma find good fanfics?"
"Try Jason Liao." he whispered, before he slumped to the floor.
I heard the sounds of a door splintering as I left through the 
window, one step ahead of Tendo Heavy Industries...