I now use Debian, which makes it easy to upgrade to the next release.

The thing is … my problems have rarely been because of upgrade problems (true, there have been a few, but usually because I screwed around with the config) … but generally the problems I’ve had are unrelated to the actual upgrade.

Last time my DSL went casters up … this time it was a drive. Any distro’s upgrade would have been bollixed up by those problems.

One of the reasons I switched off of Gentoo was because of upgrades… While it’s relatively easy to keep up to date, stability is at risk. I now use Debian, which makes it easy to upgrade to the next release.

I like the new theme, very clean

I’ve got Spinrite … but I don’t think that would have solved the problem. a) The drive was actually accessible once I installed it on a USB adapter, b) Spinrite is primarily for recovery of marginally damaged disks … it’s not a complete fix, and c) I’ve found that Spinrite isn’t as good as it’s touted to be … I’ve only been able to resurrect 1 drive out of the many I’ve had fail.

You need to look at getting SpinRite at grc.com. Best money you can spend on drive problems.