CentOS 4.1 yum update just hangs NOT-[SOLVED]

[maze at cela.pl (Maciej Żenczykowski)]

> Running Transaction Test
> Finished Transaction Test
> Transaction Test Succeeded
> Running Transaction
> Updating: zlib 100 % done 1/128
> /sbin/ldconfig: File /usr/lib/liblapack.so.3.0.3.#prelink#.3qFZHx is empty, 
> not checked.
>
> and on the console I see...
>
> ata3: command 0xca timeout ....
> ata3: status 0xda { Busy }
> SCSI error <2 0 0 0 >
> Current sda: sense key aborted command
> Additional sense: scsi parity error
> end_request: I/O error /dev/sda
> EXT3fs error: ... journal has aborted

OK, so it's pretty obvious this has nothing whatsoever to do with yum, 
except for yum causing quite a lot of random-access disk strain and thus 
causing the hardware or software (or likely the interface between the two) 
of the HDD to go flaky...

Cheers,
MaZe.