Hard Drive 2?

My Inspiron 5100 just started giving error message: "Failure predicted on Hard Disk 2" Soon afer I found that my cd drive did not work. It does not show up on "My Computer" but is in Device manager. Can I assume that "Hard Disk 2 " refers to the cd drive and not the actual hard drive?

i would back up important data just to be safe. that message refers to your HD. see this link:
http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/whitepaper…anced_smart.pdf

if you know who made the hd you can also download utilities for diagnostic purpose. i would also visit the dell website. they have excellent guides/troubleshooting/FAQ/error msg etc

Thanks for the quick reply and the advice. I have read the link you sent about SMART technology and will follow through with the other sugestions