[SSJKarma]

did anyone actually told you what shadowing and caching were ?

if not then i will tell you !
its a function of the motherboard that is activated only in the software of the motherboard ! usually activating these abilites can screw up your computer as most of the OSes doesn't allow it to be enabled.

if one person pressed the DEL key on your keyboard while the computer was starting up, they might have gone into the software of the board and activated the abilities without noticing it. (its easy)

so if yur friend knows a little how the bios is setup, you might want to speak about the shadowing abilities in it. he might be able to show you the advance tab you searched for int he start !

sorry if i cannot be more specific, but in this case i doubt your hard drive to be screwed, i mostly think the techicians up to now didn't knew what shadowing was so they simply let it go and teold you to buy another hd so they can make money !

but fact is, if its the shadow thing i think of, changing hard drive won't do you any good !

hope this helped and i hope you will find a solution to your problem...

SINCERELY YOURS, your favorite SFO computer Technician !