Harddrive Failure?

[Guest]

When I turn on my computer and it starts the boot process, a blue screen
comes up telling me that the computer has detected a potential harddrive
failure and says something about shutting down to prevent further damage.
However, if I depress the F1 key (Boot), it finally boots properly. I can
also hear the computer beep several times before coming on. If I leave my
computer in the "stand by" mode without completely shutting down, it works
fine. Is this a definite harddrive failure or something that might can be
fixed rather easily? Computer is a little over two years old. Please help!

 

[Richard Urban]

One beep, during the P.O.S.T., tells you that everything is normal. Any
other combination of beeps means you have hardware problems!

--

Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[Michael Pardee]

The message may be true. Many modern drives incorporate
S.M.A.R.T. technology to notify the user when certain
problems are detected within the drive itself. I'm
suspecting - by the description - the hard drive isn't
coming up to speed quickly enough. If so, the bearings
are probably getting bad and will only get worse.

At the very least, get serious about backing up your data
and having everything you will need to install what you
need on a replacement drive. It is axiomatic the drive
will go out sooner or later (2 years is not an unusual
life span), so be prepared.

Mike