mikekim106

I purchased a HP Pavilion ze4300 a few years back and has been working great until recently. It runs Windows XP and I use it for internet browsing/email, music, Office, etc.... nothing too complicated.

Then the problems started: system starts randomly freezing (sometimes unfreezing on it's own, sometimes not), not completely shutting down, taking a long time (10+ mins) to start up, touchpad button not working to name a few. Now it's at the point where it will inevitably show 'operating system not found' when I try to boot it up.

I've since tried to reinstall windows several times with no luck- it'll work but always finds a way to lose the os. My next idea is to install ubuntu, but have a feeling that it's a hardware issue. The hard drive sometimes makes funny noises- clicks, etc, and listening to it with a stethoscope confirmed that. The notebook seems to be in otherwise good shape.

Is this a hard drive problem? Could it be something else? Is there a way to test that? I have a desktop that runs xp and ubuntu split but never home to use it as I'm constantly at work, school, or precepting in a hospital.

Any help or other idea would help me out big time. Thanks in advance,

Mike