SMART failure predicted...

[five40josh]

...on primary master. Does this mean that my hard drive is going to fail? Would replacing the hard drive fix this problem?

Thanks in advance.
~J

Edit: I guess I should let you know that I am helping a friend out with this computer, and it is not in warranty (I do not believe). Also, it is running on Win XP Professional. Thanks.

[patio]

Yes.
Failure is imminent...
You may have a few weeks or you may have a few hours.
Stop using the machine and decide how you are going to backup the data and replace the drive.

[five40josh]

So is it as easy as taking out the bad HDD and replacing it with a new one?

I found this one over at newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262

[patio]

Actually if the old drive will run more than an hour you can use the Seagate tools to "clone"  the old drive to the new one...
Then you simply disconnect the old one ....set the new one as the boot drive and you should be good to go...

You haven't mentioned if the old drive is a SATA or IDE...

[five40josh]

Ooooh.... good question. I think I remember seeing something about IDE on the boot menu. I'll have to take a look at it tomorrow. Thanks for bringing this to my attention (still a noob).

[five40josh]

So if the HDD I am replacing is an IDE (WDC-WD800JB-00ETA0), should I just replace it with another IDE drive or should I be looking into something different?

Thanks.

[Kurtiskain]

An IDE drive would do fine and would most likely provide the best compatability.

Simply set the new drive up as slave and clone the drive as patio said - no losses.

Once it is cloned, remove the old drive and keep for pulling apart later.

Set the new one as master and away you go

Then when you have some spare time, pull the old drive apart for the magnets and anything else you want out of there
(it is also fun to see just how fast it actually spins! )