ah um it froze again

Will it restart?

If so check the Device Manager in order to ID the hard drive.

Start/Run/ devmgmt.msc | click the + next to Disk Drives

i can restart it and i have 2 HDDs and they came in this order "Maxtor 6Y250P0" then "WDC WP1200JB00CRA1"

Do you know whether XP is on the Maxtor or the Western Digital? In other words which is Master?

Here are the respective diagnostics:

Maxtor: PowerMax:

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...&downloadID=22

Western Digital: Data Lifeguard:

http://support.wdc.com/download/?cxml=n&pid=999&swid=3

its on the western digital

If you can stay on that machine long enough try the:

Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows

http://support.wdc.com/download/?cxml=n&pid=999&swid=3

If not make the boot floppy:

Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS (Floppy)

http://support.wdc.com/download/?cxml=n&pid=999&swid=2

it said it failed SMART stadus... what does tis mean? what do i need to do?

Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART)

In an effort to help users avoid data loss, drive manufacturers are now incorporating logic into their drives that acts as an "early warning system" for pending drive problems. This system is called Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology or SMART. The hard disk's integrated controller works with various sensors to monitor various aspects of the drive's performance, determines from this information if the drive is behaving normally or not, and makes available status information to software that probes the drive and look at it.

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/...esSMART-c.html

Try again just to verfy the response. If there is an in-depth scan option you could also try that.
Unfortunately it would appear that your hard drive is failing.
If there is data you want to save you can probably extract it using the drive as a slave either in another computer or this one after you replace the drive.

You can move the Maxtor to Master & install XP onto it or buy a new drive.

If the Western Digital is under warranty they will replace it.

so what could have caused this? was it just the hard drive? do you think it would be worth selling it for parts i do have some expencive parts in there

From what we've seen so far the hard drive is the problem. There is no indication in this thread that any thing else is wrong with the computer. Hard drives are relatively inexpensive & easy to replace.

I would suggest moving your Maxtor to the Master position & reinstall XP onto it. Then we can see if there are other issues as well as retrieve your data from the WD drive.