Compaq computer problem

[limerickred]

The brother-in-law has an old compaq deskpro desktop running windows 98(it's old,i know).When he started it up yesterday he got the message "1782 disk controller failure".Unable to reboot or anything,just wondering,would this mean that the hard drive is gone and if so would it be worth replacing?He only uses it for the internet,any help?

 

[bankrupt]

I'd say the disk has died alright, the good news is that you can replace them cheaply so yes, probably worth fixing.