In every machine, gizmo, tool, and implement designed by human ingenuity, there always seems to be one malfunction, one fatal flaw, one fault that spells doom for the entire contraption.

You know its bad when the auto mechanic solemnly pronounces over your unmoving carcass of a car "it's the transmission." You know you're in trouble when the washing machine repairer proclaims "it's the water pump." You know it's curtains when the furnace maintenance expert just shakes his head, and hands you your heavy coat and a box of matches.

The worst tool diagnosis of all? These dreaded words uttered by the techno geek teenager sitting at your keyboard: "You've crashed your hard drive." Visions of months, even years of work - all your files, graphs, numbers, research, all lost forever in some silico…