@matigo Nothing wrong with the machine. The problem is that it cannot be down during anyone's normal business hours as it contains authentication data for an application of ours. (A decision I was not fond of but I wasn't in charge when it was made)
The way I am doing it means a simple plugging in of the failing drive and it's up in one minute.
The drive's bad spots are at the very stinking end of the partition. No data there.