EDIT: I think tha tI've decided to reinstall linux, use the drive until it fails completely or is so irritating I can't stand it any longer. If it fails completely before November, then I do the recovery process, phone sony and get it RMAed, if it just irritates me, then maybe, if I'm lucky, 60G laptop HDs will have gone down in price.
EDIT2: I love my little kobuns, even when they are annoyed.