Wow - you guys are amazing! Thanks heaps for the advice ... I've been away for the last couple of days and was delighted to come back to some really useful responses. OK - I should mention "total noob" is possibly a bit of an exaggeration. I did once replace a HDD in a mac ibook and that was a real roll up the sleeves and don't breath kind of operation (for me anyway!) I've found out they are SATA drives (2 x 500GB) I'm thinking I might be able to drop them into an enclosure with firewire connection (thanks for the link)? Or would the drives plug into my mac? What about the PS3? (I'm thinking the Lacies would be 3.5" - pretty sure PS3 needs 2.5"?) Data recovery is not an issue - I haven't even used the drive. i should mention that I bought the Lacie (brand new in box) on ebay from what appeared to be a legitimate Australian seller (I'm in Oz). Found out from Lacie that the unit is an overseas model and I'm not covered by local warranty. Its too expensive to send to the USA so basically I'm screwed.