ok, now i'm back home down south on my old rig. it's an AMD K6-II 500, 192 MB SDRAM, GA-5AX MB, with a 10GB Seagate hdd running WinME. and nowadays, i usually get a BSOD saying:

Disk Write Error
Unable to write to disk in drive C:
Data or files may be lost
Press any key to continue

and i presume my hdd's dying? anyone experienced this? i'm wondering how much longer my hdd will last. if not long, maybe i could get a new one while i'm here..
the wierd thing is that it doesn't come up while i'm trying to save pics and documents (as far as i've experienced), but it comes up when i'm browsing the net and suddenly, the hdd would start to read LOUDLY. while the hdd is reading, everything stops, not even the mouse cursor or the CTRL-ALT-DEL works. then comes up the BSOD. but after that, everything's fine again.
i've been saving pics and documents no problem, by the way...
i'm going to nuke ME away and replace it with 2K soon, but if i have to change the hdd anyway, i'd wait till then..
so wh (ugh... here it comes again..) at do you guys think?
i haven't run scan disk and defragment the hdd yet, maybe i'll try that...

Just sounds like another Microsoft trick to make you buy new software and hardware. Try running Memtest 86 and see if your ram is bad, then if your not getting any clicking or anything of that sort then I think you will be fine. Windows 2000 is much more stable than ME will ever be, so that will be a great upgrade in itself. If possible go up to XP, IMO it is much faster and stable than any other OS Microsoft has ever had.

Try running some Hard Drive benchmark programs like HDTack and ATTO to see if they fail and if not then your set and if they do then you'll know you need a new hard drive.

http://www.tcdlabs.com/hdtach.htm

http://www.attotech.com/software/index.html

Here's a couple of the Hard Drive sites you might want to check out.

http://www.teresaudio.com/memtest86/

And here is the memory tester that you also might want to run just in case you want to know if your ram is ok.

hmm... ran the tests, and all is well...
for some reason, i haven't been experiencing the error so far...
mysteries...
thanks

If there are errors and noises, then that drive is about to die.

As Mictlantecuhtli said, You should make a backup of any important data NOW....

The drive is dead already if its making grinding noises and you're getting error messages, it just hasn't happened yet.

Buy another drive. Fit it as primary master and install windows 2000 to it, leaving your old drive as a slave or master on the other channel.

Then copy any important data from the old drive to the new one in your shiny new Windows 2000....

Once finished, remove the old drive, and consult the website of your drive's manufacturer for return procedures. Once replaced, you will have a new additional 10 GB drive for data back up or for games, etc....

LoL!!!

My hard drive has made grinding noises, hissing noises, "steam shooting out of a small pipe" noises, exstensive beeping noises...

I've had it for 4 years and it has not "died" yet... :blush:


EDIT: It finally died. Accidentally "dropped" it off a cliff! ;D