I was told that hard disk failure is eminent. I did not believe the warnings and I tried to do some research. I pulled the PC apart to better understand the working parts hoping there was simply something unplugged. I can't say I put it all back together and still get the same message Please confirm that I need to replace the hard drive, I can buy another but while I am in there I want to make sure I don't have to fix something else History this PC use to have a CD but both bays indicate DVDRRW & DVDROM so I was thinking if an IDE error may have caused the other errors OK so when I boot up this is exactly what displays Phoenix-Award BIOS v 6.00PC 2005 HP Rev. 3.47 3/3/06 AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ 1506304k ok + 64M shared memory DDR 400 single channel, 64-bit IDE 1 master none IDE 1 slave none IDE 2 master HL-DT-STDVDRRW IDE 2 slave IDE-DVD DROM IDE 3 master Samsung SP2504C VT100-38 IDE 4 NONE Now when I opened up the tower the IDE 3 is actually a SATA drive with the red ribbon cord. Any suggestions? Please include any upgrading ideas as well because I lost my CD accesibility for some time now but I just continued to use the PC. I had called India while it was still under warranty but I became so frustrated with the language barrier I just left it alone. Thank You in advance

Also when I went to the the setup for the IDE3 It reads 250 GB cylinder 65535 head 16 precomp 0 landing zone 65534 sector 255 Transfer Mode UDMA 5 but for the other IDE channels all fields are 0s

Imminent disk failure warnings do not arise from loose connections. They are a sure sign that your harddrive is heading south and needs replacement. Being a name-brand OEM system you may have only a recovery disk and not a full instal disk so my recommendation is to get a replacement harddrive immediately and use a disk cloning program to copy the operating system and drive contents. It sounds a little like you have very limited experience so I would recommend you take the system to a technician and request they do the drive cloning and replacement. Your problem with the optic drives is a separate issue and you have not provided enough information to tell whether that is a hardware or software problem. There are a number of applications which if installed prove to be incompatible with XP and disable access to CD/DVD drives. It may also be that the lasers are worn out or dirty. Get the technician to investigate that as well. Goin' Fishin' (Some day)

The readings you list are normal. Where did you come up with the hard disk failure is eminent?

I guess it came from S.M.A.R.T. that warned the OP that the HD is about to fail any time. Some people (and web sites such as this one) mistaken the word "any time" to meant "eminent" rather than "imminent." In any case Imminent is the correct term to use here. i_Xp/VistaUser

Hard drive manufacturer's provide diagnostics to check out their drives: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm...