I would have to disagree with Greg about unusual noises being the only indicator of a bad hard drive. While they often do make such noises, I have seen many go out without making such noises. Unfortunately, with most winblows screen readers you will have little to go on for troubleshooting. The problem could be a bad cluster, or a corupt file. It may just be a bad controller which incidently resides on the drive. (This is something many don't realize.) I have supported computers now for more then 5 years and have only seen the motherboard go out a few times. I would only believe it is a problem on the motherboard after exhausting all other possibilities. As for your shut down problems they could easily be related to the drive. Or they could be related to a network driver. There are some patches that can be applied to make the shut down more likely to happen. If you read what changed it is more then likely m$ added some wait time for something to shut down. They seem unconcerned with actually fixing the problem. ======= Kirk Wood Cpt.Kirk at 1tree.net The mind is like a parachute; it works much better when open. If your too open minded, your brains will fall out.
