> I checked the hard drive using the manufacturer's diagnostics and it's > fine. Even if the hard drive were failing, I'm not sure how it would > address my question. Shouldn't enough of the operating system be > running in RAM (I have 4 gigs of it and no swap) so that my computer > can switch to and log into a terminal without needing to access the > hard drive?
I wouldn't trust the manufacturer's tools 100% of the time. Even if the tools say the disk is fine, its possible that it is not, and that a failure is imminent. I had a similar problem awhile ago, and swapping out the hard drive resolved the issue. The hard drive's diagnostics also reported no problem. I also had a different hard drive spontaneously fail, with no warning from the diagnostics.
