If it's the original hard drive that came with the computer (which it sounds like it is) a call to tech support would probably tell him where to find the hard drive diagnostic utility on the discs that came with his computer. If it's anything like the diagnostic utility on the discs that came with my computer (which it might very well be, since Gateway and Emachines are now part of the same company), he'll have to boot up with one of the CDs, press something to get it to the command line, and then enter in a command to bring up the utility. This utility wasn't mentioned in the manual that came with my computer, so I'm thinking it's definitely not in his manual since I know their manuals these days are much smaller than the one that came with mine (I looked up his computer model, and my father's new Gateway is identical to his in every respect except for having 20 more gigs of hard drive).