disk controller failure

I have a Compaq Presario Pentium II/Win 98se. Nothing changed. Been running fine. Computer programs starting crashing. Shutdown computer for the night. Went to boot in morning and screen says ‘1724 disk controller failure’ and won’t boot to HDD. you can see files on HDD at DOS prompt c: and copy files from folder to folder etc. but will not boot operating system. Does disk controller failure usually mean motherboard ide controller is bad? can it be replaced or need new MB? Can you add an adapter with IDE ports and bypass MB IDE controller? I was told by Compaq to take in for service, bad motherboard.