NP, I'll post what I find out

Can you burn your data off to CDs? Suppose you could pick another hard drive... not sure if that is exactly the problem, diagnostics may very well tell you one way or another.

Download didn't work. i am going to try the ISO instead of the EXE.

I can burn some data to CDs, but that just reminded me I ran out and need to go get more! Any suggestions on what I should backup? I know I want my MP3s, pictures, videos, financial data, etc., but should I snag any important system files or other such data?

It sounds like you have identified files that contain data that you create. Question is: do you use any programs that store data in places that you don't know about or care about? I.e. internet favorites.

But I would definitely start with backing up what you know about.

System files would be restored in the event that you had to do a complete restoration of the operating system. If in the end you find that you need a new hard disk, I think that would be where you are headed.

Here are some of the auxiliary folders that I back up on my PC

Documents and Settings/<user name>/Desktop
Documents and Settings/<user name>/Favorites
Documents and Settings/<user name>/Start Menu
Documents and Settings/<user name>/Local Settings/Application Data/Microsoft/Outlook
Documents and Settings/All Users/Start Menu

Okay, change of plans.

Instead of creating a CD, let'* try this first

1) download this file and install it => http://downloads.sourceforge.net/sma...3&big_mirror=0
2) Begin a hard drive self test:
start =>programs => smartmontools => smartctl examples => start long self test

You should get a response like this pop up in a window

3) You can continue to use the PC while the test runs.
4) wait for test to complete. If you want to check the status of the test, you can choose the following link:
start =>programs => smartmontools => smartctl examples => SMART capabilities

Look for the Self-test execution status line


5) if you need to abort the test (i.e. it takes longer than expected, or you want to shut down the PC), choose this option
start =>programs => smartmontools => smartctl examples => Stop(Abort) self test

6) When the test is complete, go and look at the log to see if you have any errors
start =>programs => smartmontools => smartctl examples => SMART selftest log

If the test completed without error, it should look something like this

Thank you for the link! I'll download and start it shortly, then post results as soon as it finishes.

It said it completed without error. Does that mean my hard drive is in the clear? What exactly was that testing?

I would say so!

What that did was command your hard drive to perform an internal diagnostic on itself

Can you do the following and either PM or post the results?

start => programs => smartmontools => smartctl examples => all info

I'll see if I spot anything out of the ordinary.

In any event, at this point, I would begin to suspect either memory, motherboard, CPU, or power supply.

I would suggest that you run a memtest next.

Do you have a floppy drive? Or just a CD drive? If the latter have you acquired some blank CD'*?

If you have a floppy drive, you can download this:
http://www.memtest.org/download/1.70....70.floppy.zip

Otherwise, here is a CD ISO
http://www.memtest.org/download/1.70...+-1.70.iso.zip

Do you know how to burn a CD ISO? If not, go and download this program. After you install it, double click the CD ISO that you installed above to create a CD:
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

keep it simple at first. The first thing I always do first is clean out junk files...Temp files,
temp internet files, cookies, history
go here: C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Local Settings
delete contents of temp folder, temp internet files, history
go here C:\Documents and Settings\<user name> and delete contents of cookies
run spybot (free internet spyware program)

MY BACKUP METHOD:
purchase a second hard drive, install it and use that as your backup.
When I upgraded to XP, I slaved my ME drive and used it as backup. NOW, if something happens with XP bootup, I can make the ME drive primary boot device to fix the XP drive.