So change your mindset - disks fail. I've seen several PC IDE disks fail in the last few months. One of my past projects involved storing movies on disks. Disks that were put into production stabilized to failure rates of just several per month in a thousand-drive video server. I suggest you think of today's disks like people thought of car tires in the early 1900s - you know you are going to have a flat, so carry a spare and know how to change it.
All disks wear out and fail.
The other scary trend is the proliferation of multi-gigabyte disks in home computers. It's one thing to have tens of gigabytes on a shared server maintained by a staff of administrators, but when every Tom, Dick and Harry gets 10GB on a personal computer there is going to be disaster sooner or later. It's too easy to collect software and data. At least stamp collectors have to physically exchange albums and provide shelf space for the collection. But the PC owners have their disks connected to an infinite supply of bits - the Internet, where a couple of clicks turn on the faucet.