Do random restarts mean hard drive failure?

So, I can play stalker for hours no problem, have the computer on for hours and no problems, but as soon as I play bf2 or bf2142, I can play for a while then my system just restarts. WTF!!!!!! Now, I tested the hard drive for errors, its good to go, played bf with all processes down to barely nothing, and it restarts. I thought it was my video card over heating, nope that's fine, cpu over heating, nope that's fine. The only thing I can go on is my hard drive. Its about eight years old, and it makes a funny noise when I am browsing servers in both bf games...is it my hard drive? Everything else in my system is brand new basically besides my hard drive...warriorlax1234

If your woried about your hard drive download SpeedFan...its a program that can read your Hard Drives S.M.A.R.T data...and give you its performance rating...click the "Perform in depth online analysis"

that sounds like a powersupply issue, but its very hard to tell.

does the HDD make clicking noises, slow to respond. try running ATTO disk benchmark on it, and if its falling below normal speeds for a drive similar.....

So, I can play stalker for hours no problem, have the computer on for hours and no problems, but as soon as I play bf2 or bf2142, I can play for a while then my system just restarts. WTF!!!!!! Now, I tested the hard drive for errors, its good to go, played bf with all processes down to barely nothing, and it restarts. I thought it was my video card over heating, nope that's fine, cpu over heating, nope that's fine. The only thing I can go on is my hard drive. Its about eight years old, and it makes a funny noise when I am browsing servers in both bf games...is it my hard drive? Everything else in my system is brand new basically besides my hard drive...warriorlax1234

if your hard drive is making "funny noises" it might be kicking the can soon. as far as that being the problem i cant tell for sure. as someone else said check the event viewer for more in depth info. 

I appreciate all the replies, unfortunately I am at work right now. I will have to try this stuff later tonight, but yea power supply, funny you should mention that, I have a 500 watt ultra power supply, here are the electrical stuff:

AC input is 115V/230V - 60/50Hz

DC output is :

+3.3V+5V+12V-12V-5V+5VSB

  20A  32A   28A   0.6A  0.6A  2A

blue screen before restart? or just restart?

if its a blue screen, and happens only when running that software, you may have a bad sector in your RAM... different software accesses RAM in different ways, some better than others... some causing bad memory leaks.

Update your drivers and MOBO bios.  if that doesnt fix it... it coud be a HDD problem.

This really sounds like a power supply issue to me, although it could be anything...

Have you ever smelled anything 'funny' coming from the computer? Usually when a power supply goes (or is going) it means something has burned or popped, and you'll know if this happens (at least if you're around). It really stinks.

Also, though it could be other things. Are you overclocking? Your processor or video card may not be getting enough juice. Or your ram could be bad. Basically you need to troubleshoot...

Run some diagnostics - run Orthos for a while, test the ram, the processor, and the 'blend' of both.

As stated, a hard drive problem is usually mechanical and theregfore joined by n rather unpleasant sound. Does your drive support SMART monitoring? 

Honestly though, most of the time when I see random restarts it is a bad power supply...

OK, to all who have helped me. Thanks so much. But not known to your knowledge, I am a very savy computer..eh geek. I have done mem test 86+, and actually had rma'd ram back to new-egg, got some new stuff back, and it was good to go. I have run diagnostics and what not, honestly I think its just my hard drive or power supply. I noticed last night that one of the fans on my psu was not working. Not spinning at all. I thought maybe just dust build up, but nope. The one fan is dead. The other one works though, another thing that I had just renumbered from last night was that while my computer was restarting, it froze. It froze when the hard drive was under load saving files. So I think I just answered my own question. But also with the help you guys/girls to make me re-think up these issues. I will tonight, to a fresh install of xp. WTF. Worth a shot right? I mean who knows, if my hardware worked fine plenty of other times ago, why now???? If this computer still does this crap after I reload, then its the hard drive or psu!

personally, i would try taking some of the load off the psu, and trying that first. with a dead fan on the psu it could be the simple fact that its not running efficient.

remove anything that you wont need.... sound card, cd drives, spare harddrives. try and see if that helps with the restarting.

most harddrive manufactures have a "disk testing program" to run stress tests on the drive to see if its functioning properly. i know that western digital do one, as i had to test one of mine, but as ive not had to use others, im not 100% sure.

check your ram....if you have 2 gig sticks then boot with one gig stick or 512mb stick..if no fix remove main stick and try the other by itself.  Also try and make it a habit to keep a quality psu in a closet or in a drawer so if this happens you can switch out and go through the process of elimination.  If the fan isnt spinning that is a good sign of a faulty psu....maybe not total failure but ur psu is on the brink of a physical death, i would assume....As someone mentioned earlier run a SMART analysis on the speedfan program and check for performance % and fitness %.  Also check for viruses, run disc check, and uninstall and reinstall drivers.  Id say its component damage though, but it still never hurts.  If the speedfan displays a good performance and fitness rating then try disc check and defrag your pc to eliminate the hd problem, if no fix jump to the psu last and stop worrying about the HD, drivers, viruses (also), etc etc.