Question : 2001 Dell dimension hard drive failing? replace drive or buy new computer?

2001 Dell Dimension 4100 running XP Home is showing signs of failing hard drive. A) Have I diagnosed correctly and B) should I just get a new hard drive or a whole new computer? Problems have been going on for several weeks; sometimes cannot boot at all, sometimes, boots and runs fine; sometimes boots and then freezes and shuts down. Error messages vary: "No hard drive found"; "Windows did not start normally"; kernel_stack_inpage_error; lots of blue screens and black screens. Intermittently hear loud clicking noise from hard drive. Cannot boot from install CD. The ABCD diagnostic lights on the back vary from all green to different combos of green and yellow/orange. In any case I have no idea what the lights indicate.  I have been looking at other postings here and based on that think it is the hard drive. (I did check the cables inside and they are seated properly.)  So -- do you think it is hard drive and if so, does one put a new hard drive in a 6 year old machine or just buy a new machine? Thank you.

Answer : 2001 Dell dimension hard drive failing? replace drive or buy new computer?

It's always easy to spend someone else's money but it depends a lot on how critical the machine is.  

If you need to rely on it then yes it is probably time to replace it.  If you are happy to take a risk on components failing then just replace the drive (you can always put the new drive in another machine later).

What you are describing does sound a lot like impending drive failure (apart from the can't boot from CD - you should check this out)  so you should also be concentrating on backing up the data on this one.