I've also had the HiMD blues too with Sonic stage and the mini disc player itself. I was so mad that in anger, I actually threw it against the wall and smashed it as the player had destroyed one of the tracks. I'm through with Sony mini disc. They are history for me and I just joined the Edirol team.
It was the software that destroyed one of the tracks and not the unit itself.
And you verify this how? Sorry, dude, but how exactly do you know what did what on SpareRibs's machine? You can -T me all you want but there's simply no way to be certain that it wasn't hardware failure without having the actual MD in your hands (and known-good equipment to play it back).
I've had several MD units "spontaneously" fail during recording (or playback). They simply wore out. I never dropped or otherwise abused them. I basically treated my MD equipment as if it was a Faberge egg and they still failed. Granted, these were not HiMD (because I refused to spend more money on a dying medium) but I don't imagine that much has changed in the way MDs are physically recorded since 1992. It's still a magneto-optical disc. The data density is just higher now than it was then.
The main problem with MD (apart from the 1/8" inputs) is that there are moving parts (and seemingly no write buffer whatsoever) in the recording mechanism. Said moving parts are Extremely Delicate. And judging by what I've read and experienced, whatever "spring" helps to steady the laser/magnet during writing loosens up as time goes on. Eventually, that mechanism becomes sensitive enough to vibration that it will actually "skip" during recording, simply from the vibration of the music. The recorder loses data (which more or less destroys the recording).
When my MZR700 failed (with a brand-new "gold" disc) during a paid gig, I had to hold myself back from throwing it across the room. I had another opportunity to record the group (and brought some foam to cushion the recorder) but that was the last paying gig I took with that machine. The second problem with MD equipment is that it's not worth repairing it anymore. When a brand new solid-state device costs less than twice as much as "repairing" a destined-to-fail MD unit, there's no reason to keep pouring money into MD.
indietaperwloo: I definitely feel your pain. Good luck with your future recording with the R-09 (my "distant second" choice when I was looking for a solid-state recorder). SD cards are nearly indestructible (I've used them in photography for a while and have had nothing but joy). Not sure I can say that about the R-09 but it is, by reputation, a fairly solid 1/8" rig (at the very least, you won't have issues with "normal" vibration).