I've had the old disk for a bit over 3 years and it has served me well, but now has reached the end of its life. It's the first hard disk I can remember in recent times wearing out, as opposed to merely outgrowing.
The 10gb disk I bought was the smallest new disk available at the market, dwarfed by 40/70gb units, and was only $165. I can remember some years ago, getting off the bus from Monash at an electronics shop in Clayton and plonking down $500 or so for a shiny new 540Mb Quantum hard disk, and being pleased with the amount of space it would add to my cramped 170Mb system (which was probably a 386SX-16 running Linux 1.0 or so).
(I'm showing my age here, aren't I?)