Hard Drive Failures

Help! I have a Compaq PC (i kno don't laugh) that is 4.5 years old.
I have had to replace the HD countless times. The last time I
purchased an 80GB Maxtor HD. Now the system is telling me it is about
to fail. I have had some other issues with the system lately, too, but
it all comes down to the same problem... the system just locks up,
period.

Recently I noticed during a restart a message flashed against the black
screen saying something was not working correctly, but it was there and
gone so quickly I couldn't read it.

I am getting the info about the HD failing from the Event Viewer --
Systems log.

I have no idea where to begin. Please let me know what data you need
from me about my setup and I will post it.

Does anyone have any idea what's going on?

Thanks in advance