Thank you BC_Programmer for that summary of the situation. I tried to follow the lifetracker procedure but the screens that came up were unlike those mentioned. On pressing the start button, a white on black screen came momentarily and then was replaced by the white on black screen with the Disk I/O error, Replace the disk, and then press any key. This is a repeat of what I reported in previous post. However, "HDD S.M.A.R.T capability......Disabled" was also on this screen. Does this mean that the drive is completely hooped and nothing more can be done?