Bios, mobo, or HDD?

[hcetrepus]

I was called to work on a WinME machine that was displaying the following message upon powering up

"Operating System Not found"

I went into the (phoeinix) BIOS and the HDD was the first device listed in the boot order. I again tried a few more times to boot to the HDD successfully. Nada. Each time going back into the BIOS. After the fourth or fifth attempt, I went itno the BIOS and disabled the Other devices mentioned in the boot entirely. STILL, nothing.
I then removed power from the other devices (ROM's, FDD) altogether and it booted to the HDD, and Windows loaded.

After backing up the vital data, I reapplied power to the other drives and Windows booted normally. @0-30 mins in, while installing Google toolbar (for pop ups) I got a blue screen that said

Cannot write to disk C:

I pressed the anykey and it returned to windows. It was now running very sluggish. At this point all spyware had been removed and Mcaffee stinger reported a clean disk.

I received a call 2 weeks later and they are getting the OS not found upon bootup.

I have a couple ideas, but hope to see some confirmation. Any ideas?

Pent III
128 MB RAM
38 GB HDD (4 gigs used)

 

[Jomama46]

This can usually be resolved by "sysing" the drive. It may also be that the MBR is corrupted. If it happens often, I would think it is time for a new drive.

Jomama

 

[Wishdiak]

hcetrepus,

The times that I've seen this before it was always a hard drive about to give up the ghost. I've got a few old drives around here (all from the same major brand) that died a noisy death after intermittently failing. Get all the data off that drive and replace it.

Wishdiak

http://www.wishdiak.com

 

[hcetrepus]

Thanks guys. I had originally told her she would be needing a new HDD, but forestalled her from running out and buying one.

Appreciate the replies