akmac - 12:13 am on Apr 5, 2011 (gmt 0)

I've got an 08 24 inch Imac (aluminum case) with a 320 gb hard drive that's about to give up the ghost. It will only run for 10-15 minutes before locking up, so I'm salvaging the last of my wife's photos off of it in 10-20 gb batches.

It seems to be temperature related, as after it locks up-if I let it sit for 30-40 minutes I can start it up (in target disk mode) and get another 10-20 minutes out of it. But, I don't hear the fan ramping up and there is no HD noise-so I'm not certain* that the hd is actually failing-or if it might be some other component.

*Apple support says that it's most likely the HD (I'm out of warranty).

So, if you think it may be something other than a failing HD-please chime in.

Now, If it is the HD-which at this point I think is probable-what should I replace it with? I'd love to put in either the 2tb WD caviar black, or the 2tb Hitachi deskstar (both 7200 rpm 64 cache) but I don't want to overload my existing hardware-if that's possible. Any tips or recommendations?