Compaq hard drive help

[ormiga]

computer was working fine until i got message of hard disk failure omminent

 

[Ubrales]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware Forums!

Can you post the exact message? Also the computer details.

Sooner or later all hard disks will fail. With advance warning we can take steps to minimize or even eliminate data loss.

 

[hang-the-9]

computer was working fine until i got message of hard disk failure omminent

That's pretty much like saying "I was walking along the street file until I got shot in the head".

Buy a new hard-drive, install a new setup of Windows on that (using restore disks or whatever came with your PC). Plug in the original drive in as a secondary disk, or get an external USB enclosure for it, and copy over your My Documents, Favorites and Desktkop directories from your user profile in C:\Documents and Settings\username (if you have XP).