Start DST Short Test failure

Hi, I have a 2 year old Inspiron 600m running Windows XP Professional. My hard drive is a discontinued Fujitsu MHT2080A Ultra ATA/100 80 GB 4200 RPM.

For the past few days, while everything boots without any problems, the whole system becomes extremely slow after booting up, even when trying to open some folders with no other program running. I've tried running a diagnostic and received the Start DST Short Test: Fail message. I searched on forums and found that, based on the symptoms, my hard drive is the cause of the problems and that it should be replaced.

I assume that because the forums recommend that option, there is little chance of actually fixing my hard drive. Is there absolutely no way to fix my hard drive? What exactly is the problem with the hard drive in the first place?

I have other concerns too. One of which is that my laptop is now 2 years old and unfortunately I had opted for only the basic one-year warranty. I think the hard drive itself has a 3 year warranty with the Fujitsu itself though. Would I be able to have it replaced by Dell/Fujitsu?

Thanks!

Message Edited by jabbidy on 08-15-2007 11:59 AM