HDD seems to die.

I recently installed a 120GB Maxtor HDD in a friends HP computer and everything went acordingly.They got it home and suppositly adjusted the resolution and then things started to go wrong.I got the computer back and started it up and everthing went fine until it got to the the windows screen,I heard the HDD winding up then winding down and the screen went black and everything stops.Can anyone help or know what this is and shy it is happening?