One of the less-good developments is that one WD3003FZEX-00Z4SA0 (of the 2 internal to my PC, out of 3 I have in total) now has some pending sectors (9 at the last count), taking a handful of programs out of action (one of which, ironically, was HDDScan
; its normal way of displaying the report sheets doesn't work anymore, so instead I got a prompt to open the XML output in another program).I pondered what to do for a bit; I already tried Linux Mint Cinnamon on an old freebie PC (which also came in handy for playing music and videos while waiting through the set-up on here
), so I got out an SSD I brought home earlier (Kingston SA400S37120G), added it into my PC, and installed the latest Mint version (20.2) on it. (And yes, I checked that it doesn't have a SandForce/Farce controller 
.)I've long maintained the good sense to stick with open file formats (and multi-platform application software) where available, so shouldn't have too much trouble transitioning. In the worst case, I could set up a VM with Windows 7 for what remains…
I don't expect miracles from Linux, nor do I even mind if it isn't as functional as Windows; as long as it's adequate for my purposes.
I even know that many people regard it as a pain; but then as my Mum can attest at the office, so is Windows 10
