HD failure imminent ?

[BobB]

My older Compaq tower had been running Win XP SP3 normally until today. Now, for no apparent reason, it turns itself completely off repeatedly. During or after following re-boot it may shut down again but at a different time. There are no obvious cooling restrictions.  IMHO the hard drive may be going bad - any suggestions to test it will be appreciated (but remember it may power itself down at any time).

Thanx.
Bob
Palm Bay, FL   

[DA8686]

You can try a hard drive health tool such as the one's from http://www.drivehealth.com/ or http://lifehacker.com/software/disk-recovery/download-of-the-day-part-ii-hdd-health-disk-monitor-156281.php.

Also, if you hear a clicking noise, that is a sign of drive failure.  Also, make sure you get everything backed up ASAP.

[Dias de verano]

could also be the RAM or the PSU. Or the CPU. Lots of things. Look in the Event Log to see if there are any clues.