I've been skeptical about donating money to fan projects in the past, but based on the results I've seen thus far I'd be willing to shell out a bit of cash if it would help pay for a new drive, and hence get the project back up and running more quickly.
EDIT: Another thought... would it be possible to transfer completed portions of your work to others for storage? I myself just recently purchased a new 320 GB drive during a small catastrophe with Windows a week ago. If it were possible/convenient, I'd be happy to store files as a back up. Not sure how realistic this would be (i.e., transfer times, etc.), but... just an idealistic thought. Again, maybe this is not feasible for some reason which I have not accounted for.