Both smoke and power drops can shorten the lifespan of a hard drive. An Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) can provide some protection against the latter, but a surge protector will only work against voltage spikes.
Have you checked the drive’s warranty status?
Ok, new problem now…I tried installing the SATA drive, but for some reason my machine wouldn’t boot from it! There shouldn’t be a problem, I’ve got an 875 motherboard which should handle SATA; even tried cloning the new O/S onto another SATA drive, and the thing just would not boot.
My friend took my 'pooter to try and work on it some more, but I won’t hear back from him until Monday…meanwhile, I’m posting with my old, ancient Win98 machine w/ dialup access only and it still smells of mothballs…well at least it’s got DOOM on it. 
As for the bad Maxtor drive…it should still be under warranty, it’s only 15 months old. Unfortunately, the guy who build my system died a few months ago, so I don’t have any receipts…(actually it’s not all that unfortunate, the guy was a major asshole.)
I can’t add anything to the above suggestions, but I notice you have Service Pack 1 on your Windows XP. For safety’s sake, I urge you to get the SP 2 upgrade when you do get the machine up and going properly.
SP 2 fixes a lot (not all) of the vulnerabilities to viruses, worms, etc., so do do this ASAP.
Also, please do let us know what the solution turns out to be for you. Good luck!
You don’t need a receipt; you only need the serial number off the drive’s label. Go here and follow the instructions.
I’d still recommend running Maxblast first, as it will confirm that the drive really is bad.
Thanks for the return instructions. As it is, the machine is not in my possession right now, but I’ll pass the word along to my friend and see what he comes up with.
It looks like I’ll be getting SP2 whether I like it or not, since the latest ATI video drivers require (or at least “strongly recommend”) SP2. I assume all the issues with its original release have been resolved? (Also, if I run the new WinXP firewall, would it be wise to keep running my old firewall – Norton Security – as well?)
Norton? Do you have Nrton Anti-virus as well? I have allways found it slowed down my computer. Get AVG insteed.
And forget the Windows firewall, get Zone Alarm or Sygate.
Ok I’m baaaaack!
Guess what…the backup computer I was using, to get my SDMB fix and play Solitaire and stuff…well, 2 days ago that hard drive went KABLOOIE!!! So I was totally computer-less for TWO WHOLE DAYS!! (What are the chances of 2 hard drives, on two completely separate computers, failing within the same week?)
Now the good news:
My regular computer is back and working. My computer guy set up the new SATA drive as the data drive, with a brand new IDE 250GB Maxtor as the system drive. I’ve got a few weeks to decide whether or not to buy this drive or revert back to my old 200GB drive; basically, for some reason this 'pooter doesn’t like SATA very much, especially as a system drive, and he said it was “a real bitch” to even get the SATA working as a data drive. But I’m not gonna sweat that part right now.
Just installed ZoneAlarm, but it’s a 15-day trial program and it seems awfully expensive ($50) to buy the regular version…is it really worth that much over the free (I assume) WinXP Firewall? Plus, it keeps telling me a program called SymPxSvc.exe (which appears to be something to do with Norton) keeps wanting to access the Internet, and I have no idea what that means.
I also installed lovely Firefox, but something is strange…the tabs look FUGGLY!!! They’re all square and blockish, not those nice rounded tabs I had before. 
I’m looking through the Options/Preferences but can’t find out how to change them…can anyone help me out? (Does anyone even know what I’m talking about??)
Finally…as I said before…how likely is it for 2 hard drives to fail on different computers in the same week? My tech (and a few other people) have said, “That just happens sometimes,” but could it be something in this environment that’s wreaking havoc? Like I said earlier, we had kind of a big brush fire here earlier…
WHAT THE…allofasudden, ZoneAlarm is blocking ALL INTERNET ACCESS on ALL PROGRAMS!!! I can’t even load a page in Firefox w/o shutting the entire Firewall down!! What the hell happened!!!
There is a free version! ZoneAlarm Pro {?} just has a few extras that really aren’t necessary.
The message {SymPxSvc.exe (which appears to be something to do with Norton) keeps wanting to access the Internet} means ZA is working, if you know what program is asking for access just check the box and allow it.
What Norton products are you using?
What version of Firefox did ya have before?
Their at version 1.0.7 now.
Did you add any extensions/themes to your previous Firefox install?
Cool…I’ll have to find that. Right now I’ve moved on to another problem involving Nero, which is actually more critical at the moment. I did verify that the regular Windows Firewall is working (gee, you think they’d add an icon in the tray or have some sort of control panel or SOMETHING) so hopefully that’ll get me by for now…
Anti-Virus is active, and I do have Norton Security installed, but not enabled. (In fact, when I tried to enable it, I got the message “You Must Have Supervisor Access To Use This Feature”…bloody hell? I am the Supervisor! Well, the Administrator at least. Called my computer guy but he said, “Hmm, dunno what’s up with that, I’ll have to try and get back to you…” Which means I won’t hear from him for at least a week.) I think that file has something to do with LiveUpdate, which is supposed to auto-update every 24 hours, not every 20 minutes! Haven’t found how to shut that off yet.
It was a pretty old version, 0.47 I think. In fact I’d just finally upgraded to the current version when the old drive went kablooie. Can’t recall if I’d added any extensions or whatnot before.