how do you know if your HDD is going bad ?

[Toothpick]

Hi
I got to make this real quick, as I can go into Windows for about 15 minutes before a major freeze happens. The last few days my puter has been kinda weird, and so today I was thinking that my problem was my ribbon cable for on my <IDE slot-1> so I had replaced it
and everything was just starting to get real differant with my system so I thought, hmmmmmmm,

to make a real-long story short I was finally back into Windows so I tried to install a game and just half way into the install my system froze
up big time. So I waited awhile to get back inot Windows because I couldnt get back in so I finally made it and then everything was going fine and then I thought, OK, Lets install that game again and the same thing happen...frozen stiff.

So this time I rebooted and I couldnt get back into windows. So I thought it was the Power supply so I changed out my PS with a spare
which I had in the garage (300W) and then fired it back up and went back into Windows and I thought WOW, it was the PS and BAM it froze on me again.

So I am now thinking its the HDD and I am hoping its not my cpu...or anything else. What to do think. Sorry for the lack of more info as its getting ready to do its thing again.

 

[JimmyJoe]

Is your CPU overclocked? (or any components for that matter)

 

[JimmyJoe]

What brand/model HD? Several companies have utilities that you can d/l that will check the drive for you. Did you try the manufacturer's website?

 

[ander]

My guess is some random software problem. You might want to try wiping your drive and doing a clean OS install. See if booting up to a CD or floppy causes a crash. Usually you can tell a HD is going bad if it makes some messed up noises or doesn't detect and stuff like that; a dead HD should be pretty obvious.

 

[Danlz]

Unless it's making a noise - ranging from a loud clacking or grinding to a faint cat-scratching-on-the-screen-door noise - or S.M.A.R.T detects bad hdd at boot, then I'd suspect it's not the drive causing the freeze. I see your specs show a 2nd hdd. Why not run with it for a while to eliminate the hdd factor.