HDD problem or something wrong with Xp

[kcpatt]

Recently, I have been having a problem with my comp crashing randomly and then rebooting itself. I thought it was no big deal because everything seemed to work fine once it restarted. Then, one time it crashed again, only this time there was a funny noise coming from the hard drive when the bios was checking the IDE drives. Again, I thought there wasn't a big problem and that I would just select "Start Windows Normally" and everything would be ok, not this time. It said that there was a corrupted file named "\windows\system\vgaom.fon" And it suggested that I use the windows startup disk to repair it. I tried and my comp seems to not realize that there is a hard drive present. I also downloaded the Windows XP update as of July 14 before this problem started.

[HAL9000]

Go to the manufacturer's website for your hard drive and download their diagnostic utility and run it. You may have a failing drive.

[kcpatt]

I cant seem to find the diagnostic tool.
I have an IBM Deskstar 60gb HDD if you know the link.

[HAL9000]

http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/support/download.htm

[kcpatt]

Ok, I downloaded the utility thing and it did not work. I have tried going into safe mode, to start windows normally, etc. When I choose safemode, it brings up a list of files.

[HAL9000]

You need to run the utility from a DOS bootdisk.

[kcpatt]

Yeah, I did the DOS bootdisk thing and it "said" it was fixing the files, but to no avail. My comp still freezes when I choose to start windows normally or safe mode, or last configuration that worked, etc.

[Tuf]

I'm not sure you actually ran the utility but assuming it did run, Pop your XP CD in and choose the option to repair your installation.