bootup time

[coderunner]

I have a diamondmax10 250gb sata. I bought it from newegg approximately 2 months ago...and this is something I've started to notice recently...the bootup time for the machine into windowsxp is extremely long if i turn it off for a long time(ie, overnight). It will sit at the bootup screen with the scrolling bar below the XP logo for about 5-7 minutes, and I can see the hard drive access light constantly on. But, this is not an issue if i only turn it off for a little while or try rebooting. In that case, the time spent at the screen is only about 1 minute at most. Could this be a sign that my harddrive might be dying?

Thanks

 

[MobiusPizza]

Do a chkdsk /r on the HDD

 

[Kyanzes]

You could also download this small utility from passmark and leave it run in the background then check if any of the parameters are over (or in case of SMART values: under) the treshold.