WIndow XP recovery disks

I have an HP Pavilion that is 3 1/2 yrs old. I have had to restore it, 1st time July 09 best buy did it, second time around Oct. 09, I got the recovery disks, now it has crashed again a few days ago.

I have the recovery disk in, it says

Press 'F' to format the hard drive and reinstall the original factory settings, All data will be lost!

Press 'Q' to quit this menu.

If I hit 'F' it says to Press 'Y' to format the hard drive and reinstall original factory settings
Press 'Esc' to exit this menu.

If I hit 'Y' it says preparing recovery partition, then Hard Drive write error!

Is it time to just buy a new computer? I would buy one but I'd like to know why this is happening, not just buy one and have it happen again. Is 3 years or so all you can probably hope to get out of a computer, or not unusual to have to buy one after 3 years or so? I thought it would last a little longer, and I keep losing everything.

Any help would be appreciated.

You should be able to use recovery CD's as many times as you would need to...It is my opinion that your hard drive may be failing...I would read this topic...Download Belarc Advisor...It will tell you who the manufacturer of your hard drive then you can find the proper link to download the diagnostic tool. Follow the directions for using this tool....If it passes then you can rule out hard drive failure.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/28744/hard-drive-installation-and-diagnostic-tools/

Can you boot into windows at all? If you can we may be able to try a few other things...The answer to your last question is no...I have an old Sony Laptop that I have been using for almost 10 years and another Dell Desktop that has been going strong for about 5 years or so...

Edited by OldGrumpyBastard, 09 January 2010 - 10:19 AM.

Rereading this....By saying crashing are you recieving any error messages? If you are you may want to look trough this article...Download and run the de-bugging tool....Post the log here

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/176011/how-to-receive-help-diagnosing-blue-screens-and-windows-crashes/

I can't log into windows at all so I'm not sure how I can do an online scan. I downloaded Belarc advisor to my laptop. Thanks for replying.

<<...then Hard Drive write error!>>

I would interpret that as a complaint about your hard drive or the file system. Since the drive has been freshly formatted, the file system is out and that leaves the hard drive.

<>

Well...I think you've made a lot of assumptions.

A system is composed of various components...any/all can become damaged or be faulty, at any time. The typical life of a hard drive varies. If the hard drive is bad, that doesn't mean that I would replace the system, I would replace the hard drive.

Before I replaced or considered replacing anything...I would run the appropriate hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic on the drive in question, once I received any indication that it had problems.

Hard Drive Installation and Diagnostic Tools - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/28744/hard-drive-installation-and-diagnostic-tools/

Louis