Quick question

This doesn't have anything to do with macbooks, but people seem pretty knowledgeable on this forum so i figured someone could answer my question.

I unfortunately have a dell inspiron 6000 and lately it has been acting very strange. I have gotten the a blue screen several times and twice when I powered off and back on again, my computer could not find the HDD. I then powered off and back on again and it seemed to work ok. I have performed disk check it corrected a bunch of errors and bad sectors, but my problems still remain. As for other symptoms, it is taking a great deal of time for Windows to load, everything is very lagging (mouse is erratic, letters don't appear for a few seconds after typed) and certain settings I have are reset to default every time I turn the computer off. I'm thinking my HDD is failing. Does anyone know if it sounds like the HDD is the culprit or could it be something else? Also when something like this occurs, how long does it usually take before a full failure? I was hoping to get enough life out of this computer to last me until the Macbook update, but I don't know if that is going to happen. Thanks guys and I apologize that this has nothing to do with

 

thanks guys. really appreciate the responses. i've backed up all my important data and am going to attempt to run this thing until i can't anymore. hopefully it lasts until the macbook update. in a way, it's a good thing that it is dying because now I won't second guess dropping over a grand for a new computer since it is a need now, not something i just want.