Laptop issues

[ESUguy]

I'm having some issues w/ my laptop, and thought I'd try here before doing anything too drastic. I've run the Windows diagnostics, and had the DST short test failure. After a google search, it looks like this may mean my hard drive is about to take a shit. I also had another issue where is was booting, and I received an error saying the registry could not load the hive file(it is corrupt or not writable). Other than that, the computer boots, and will hit a blue screen(without message), and reboot randomly. Before I try re-installing Windows or replacing the hard drive, is there any other solutions I should try first?

thanks for your help.

[Ranger]

Can you get into safe mode and check the event viewer for reported errors? Hopefully, no disk errors there.

Maybe try system restore?

[zuffy]

Your OS is screwed. Time to reinstall.

[ESUguy]

Alright, I'll see what happens when I reinstall.

[4KRG]

Backup your data if at all possible. (even if you need to use a boot cd to do so)

I would run a diag on the hard drive before doing ANYTHING else

pull the drive and check the brand of hard drive, go to that brands web site and download the diag (this will be a better test than the laptop manufacturer provides)

let us know what the result is