HD issue, and Memory Contemplation

[ComatoseDelirium]

My o so budget PC has been working out great for me, but I have an issue with one of my harddrives, its a Maxtor, 60 gig, I got it used about 3 years ago, and it has been performing just fine, till about a month ago, when I loaded up my computer, it didn't show the drive, I use it for storage, and 20 gig WD for master, anyways, I power down the system pop it open, kinda inspect and nudge crap around, take out the IDE cable, and than stick it back in, and power back on.. problem solved.. for about 2 weeks, when it happened again, did the same thing.. problem solved.. for another 2 weeks or so when it happened again. Its my storage harddrive like I mentioned, it would be an inconvenience if it died on me, although it doesn't have any life or death data, just movies, and mp3's and programs that are replacable, I am thinking about getting a new 80 gig hdd, (i still have a collective 40 gigs free on the HD's) and sticking it in cause I have a free ide spot.. copying all the info onto it.. and than maybe just pop that one out.. or milk it until it dies. Im just wondering.. is this a typical prolonged death hard drive problem? oh yeah is their a noticable performance drain from dual channel 512 MB to single channel 1 gig, I am a mutli tasker, and I do game but not heavily, so its not all about load times for me, but I would keep my 512 MB dual channel if it takes 2 seconds to open an app, while the 1 gig would take 4... ya know what I mean, thanks for any input.