Bad Hard Drive?

I have a Compaq N800c, and it seems as though the hard drive is going. The internet browser freezes and then locks the entire computer. The system is slow to start, and slow to respond, and I'm wondering if there is a way to tell for sure. The BIOS on the system has reported an 'imminent hard drive failure', but the computer seems fine other than the slowness.

 

I would totally concur with Plodr and highly suggest that before you do anything else, backup any vital data ASAP and prepare for the eventual replacement of your drive

 

Thanks. Anyone know how to tell the difference between a SATA and IDE laptop drive? The part of the label that says it is covered by factory stickers. (Thank you OEM.)

 

I think you can tell by the connectors. Or the age. I think computers made after 2007 tend to use SATA.

 

Thanks both, I found out the info I needed.

 

Alright, having recieved the new drive, and moved all the files from the old onto my bridge computer, I have discovered a hitch. The new Hard Drive is a Samsung and is factory new, to the point where it has not been formatted, and thus will not show up on the computer with the old information. Since it is a Laptop Drive in a Desktop computer, with a USB adapter, I'm not sure that it will show up in a manner to format. Does anyone know of a good utility to do it? I looked through the ones on MG, but nothing jumped out at me as being 'the one.'

 

Right-click on my computer and choose manage. Then click on disk management in the tree to the left of the window. Then find the drive (should be the lowest disc in the list, or the one with no blue area to the right of it) and verify that it says "online" in it's box. If it doesn't, then right-click on it and choose "make online", or words to that effect. This should produce (or there already should be) a black box to the right of this area. Right-click in this and choose "new Partition". Then follow the steps in the wizard to create the new partition.