This one's about my dying, ageing, practically falling apart, 8-year old.

My 8 year old computer that is.

Every once in a while, the computer will just lock up. Whatever's on the screen, remains on the screen. The mouse doesn't move, it doesn't respond to keyboard shortcuts.

It was a fluke, but I discovered that I had to whack the CPU cabinet hard, or shake it a bit to the sides really fast. I would then hear the sound of a hard drive whirring to life, and normal functioning of the computer would resume. As if nothing had happened! (Don't ask how)

So it's pretty obvious that it's a problem with the hard drive. But what is the problem exactly? What is causing it to lock up? And why does it start working when I do a Soprano on it?

And most importantly... how long before <gasp> it dies?