I use at home a very old (~7 years) computer. About half a year ago the HD was faulty and a technician changed it to a new (so he said) and much larger HD.
Lately my computer begins to make problems again and I hear also strange noises, which supposedly come from the HD.
Is there any possibility to chech the hardware and decide what is the mechanical state of the disk, and if so, how to do it?
Please advise
thanks

Some information about the computer would be nice for some background - PC or notebook, make and model, version of Windows, etc.

Generally, if you go into My Computer and right click on the drive in question, select Properties > Tools > Check Now, then ensure both boxes are checked, and click Start. Follow the prompts to allow the system check drive at next boot.

This process could take several hours, and may appear to be hung up - just let it run.

Sorry
It’s a desktop PC with Intel Pentium 4 CPU at 2GHz
RAM 224 Mb
OS – MS Windows XP
Home Edition, Hebrew enabled, Version 2002 with SP3