It's hard to tell exactly what is going on at first glance...especially if you just described the sound to them. A head crash is a possibility, but there are quite a few other things that are more likely. Your best bet will be to take the drive out of the enclosure and plug it directly into...
If you are on a strict budget you should be able to reuse one of your computers and install Windows Home Server (WHS) which is the OS that the HP servers use. This way you can get away with mix-n-match hard drives since you already have a controller for your IDE drives. I had doubts about WHS...
I'm looking for Compact Flash / CF cards, namely larger ones. I just got a photography side job and need all the storage I can get. I'm interested in pretty much any size. Newegg prices run as follows:
8GB ~ $140
4GB ~ $60
2GB ~ $30
1GB ~ $20
512MB ~ $10
...I've seen a few listed...