SPECS: win98se, 2 WD HD

hello all,
i ran scan disk during windows start-up because my pc gave an error msg advising me to do so to fix bad clusters. 7 hours past by, and in the end, 1 section (3700 clusters) was bad.

i reboot my pc, went web browsing and found that my mouse was acting weird. ran hijackthis, cws shredder, spybot but my pc auto-reboot itself and goes into scan disk (again) while running ad-aware.

reboot again, and this msg: xxxx-imminent hard drive failure appeared. i restart my pc and it said no OS detected, restart again and my pc did detect the two hard drives but xxxx-imminent hard drive failure apppeared again. :(

so, is my C Drive going to shut down soon or there's a solution? would i be able to access my C Drive on a XP pc?

I would download the hard drive manufacturers diagnostic software and test the drive. It appears to be dying. You might be able to get it up and running long enough to get the data off. You may already be past the point of no return. S good backup would be helpful. If not, we'll go over your options.

Try and save any important Data ASAP and without even rebooting if possible. If it were me I wouldn't trust the Drive again.

For future reference, when you see a message saying "imminent hard drive failure", that's not your PC playing mind games with you! :p Shut down right away and don't use those hard drives until you're ready to recover the data. Rebooting probably didn't overwrite any of your data, but every time you turn on the hard drive(s) you're decaying them a bit more.

Do as classicsoftware says, and let us know if you absolutely need your data back. If the drive(s) in question really are dead, then your only option for recovering your data is going to be extremely expensive.

But then again, classicsoftware can get you a deal on that, too! ;)

if i place the soon-to-be dead hd as a slave somewhere else, it's not going to do much harm, right? i tried that on my 2nd pc, and i'm able to read the files.

i probably get a new drive within the next couple of days. :( it will be able hold up for that period, right? :(

oh btw, should i assume it's my master drive that's dying?

i'm using a compaq P3 650 w/ 65mb of mem. would that have a bearing on why my disk is failing?

The os or amount of memory has nothing to do with it. Don't use the drive until the new one arrives. Yes, it is most likely that it is the C: drive due to the weird behavior you are experiencing with the mouse etc..

edit:
You know, you should add more RAM to that pc. Another 128 megs would relly make a difference.

how do i find out which type of ram is suitable for my pc?

Well, for starters, you could tell us what it is...

belarc Advisor and Everest Home Edition would lend a clue as well.

Well, for starters, you could tell us what it is...

belarc Advisor and Everest Home Edition would lend a clue as well.

just installed Everest Home Edition... it says:

System Memory 64 MB (PC100 SDRAM)

if i place the soon-to-be dead hd as a slave somewhere else, it's not going to do much harm, right?
If you are must slave it then slave it to an optical drive but I dont recommend having any other devices on the same cable as a dodgy drive, ever since I lost a second good drive attempting to recover data from a failing drive. I see that the third post at http://www.shopzilla.com/9L--Western_Digital_Caviar_WD1200JB_120_GB_Hard_Drive_ -_cat_id--410__prod_id--6516328 shows that the same thing happened to someone else; and this was following an "imminent hard drive failure" message into the bargain!

i'm buying WD 80GB but dont i have to format the disk before installing the OS?

With WinXP initialising (partitioning and formatting) is taken care of during the installation process; just follow the prompts carefully.

but i only have win98 for my compaq. should i format my disk (as a slave) on anther pc under winXP?

I was going by what you originally said, viz: "would i be able to access my C Drive on a XP pc?" and missed the bit about Win98 under SPECS - even though it was your first line - sorry.

Compaqs generally come with a restore disk rather than an installation disk. Such restorations take care of formatting as part of their own repair process, since what they do is to replace "an image" of the whole system back onto the hard drive rather than dyanmically install al the components.

is my disk failing because my pc (hang) doesnt shut down properly and pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete doesnt work and i would just switch off the main switch? :o

is my disk failing because my pc (hang) doesnt shut down properly and pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete doesnt work
Its the other way round; the shut-downs and other symptoms are features of a failing disk.

All the experiences round here are that if disks start giving such problems (particularly if associated with imminent failure messages) that they will die sooner than later. You could test the drive with the maker's utilities - but personally I wouldnt trust any important data on such a system.

should i format my disk (as a slave) on anther pc under winXP?
If you don't have the Compaq restore disk do you have access to a Win98 installation CD. To install from that you would need to partition and format prior to installation - that could be done as a slave on another PC, but ensure that it is a primary FAT32 partiton and that it has been marked as active.

i have the QuickRestore Disk. :)

thanks to all for the advice given. it'll be another 2 days before i have a new disk. :)