[irishcrazy2005]

Okay, I am worried that my hard drive might be getting ready to crash or die or something, and I was wondering what you guys think. Here is the background:

For several weeks now I have been having problems burning material onto CD and DVD. For awhile I thought that this might be because the drive had become very fragmentated with large FLAC and VOB files which could not be defragged using Windows Defragmentator. Whenever trying to burn a disc (either with Nero or Roxio) I usually get some sort of "Data cannot be read" error. For awhile, after a series of deleting large files and running the defrag again, I could burn successfully. Now, I cannot burn certain things again. Some things seem to work, but other folders fail every time.

Now, this morning I wake up and expect to find my computer turned on and happily uploading over BT (how I left it last night). Instead I find a black screen that says "Operating System Cannot Be Found." I almost had a heart attack, but thankfully I was able to turn it off and back on and it started up okay. Now I am in a rush to make another backup of my data (specifically I accidentally erased all of my pictures on DVD), and I cannot get them to burn off. Fails every time.

So, in your opinion, is my drive about to die, or is this something else? Thanks.

-Phil

P.S. Most of the time, instead of actually getting an error message in Roxio, the buffer level just immediately drops to about 1% and the estimated time to completion shoots up to some ridiculous number, although it does actually continue to burn. I only got one error from Roxio, and that was for an ISO of a DVD-A disc