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Find a copy of a Hiren Boot CD or Ultimate Boot CD and boot into it. For Hiren, once you boot you need to go to "Hiren menu" or whatever it is (Right above the mini XP option). Navigate to the HDD Diagnostics section and choose the diagnostics for your type of hard drive. If you're not sure what it is, boot into the BIOS (normally F12, Esc, or Del on boot) and check. Serial numbers will give it away if it doesn't say the MFR (ST- is Seagate, HT is hitachi, WD is Western Digital, etc). If your corresponding diagnostics won't work, run the IBM diagnostics (not sure if it's on UBC or Hiren). Any error and it should be replaced.Does the HDD click? It sounds like something is out of place for sure. Most likely a drive head got damaged when it was dropped and it's not reading properly anymore. Theoretically you'd be able to do a platter transplant and put the platters in a different drive but it's risky, tough, and not all drives have the same hardware in them so you'd need a spare same-model drive. If data doesn't matter, don't bother thinking about it.Best bet seems to be buying a new HDD, but if it passes diagnostics then it might be possible to save it.