One of my computers is a Gateway desktop, that came with Vista Home
Premium. This computer has been giving me problems ever since I got it
last May. It has been giving me unexpected shut downs without warnings.
I have formated the hard drive numerous times, and finally paid Gateway
to get the restore disk so that I could do this. Well, the problem
kept continuing. I had talked to Gateway numerous times also. Anyway, the
last straw was yesterday when I restored again, and this time she did a
shut down on me when it was installing the necessary updates. Now I
knew it wasn't a software incapability or something that I loaded that
was causing it. So I called Gateway again, and this time I rant and
raving about how I was frustrated about this and I wanted to find a
way to absolutely clear my hard drive from this corrupted thing or virus,
so I could do another clean format. After her research about this
problem, she suggested that I may have a bad hard drive, that is causing this
problem. She offered to send me out a new hard drive for $75, and if I
sent the old hard drive back, I would get the money back. I accepted,
but was reluctant to commit to putting a hard drive in myself, since I
was unfamiliar with this. I am a hands on learner, and got most of my
computer insights from you guys, and problems that I try to get out of.
Anyway, she said it is not hard, and that Gateway would talk me through
it. The computer is on Manufacturer warranty, but I did not buy the
extended warranty from Best Buy; so I think that Best Buy would not be
able to help me out with this, nor would I want them too, since I hear
horror stories.

My question to you is: Does this sound like a reasonable explanation
to a solution, and how difficult is it to replace the hard drive. I would
like to be assured that this may be the solution to the problem. One
can only try. What are your ideas?? Thanks.