download hiren's boot cd. u will need a stable computer to do so, it is small enough to fit onto a CD incase your computer only has a CD drive, many utilities on it. For RAM, run Memtest, for the hard drive, run HD Sentinel first, (if you dont already know the make of the drive (Western Digital, Maxtor, Seagate.. etc.) Then select the correct Company's HD Test and run it. Do a DIAGNOSTICS Test, don't run any that say Format.