Is My HD about to die??? HELP!! :-)

Basically i came back today and my laptop wouldn't start (Win XP) saying it couldn't read from the boot disk and that i should check the hardware..... anyway eventually after turning it off and on countless times i am now into windows and it seems to be running fine. I've googled the problem but couldn't find a straight answer... wel not one i understood .... So kind and clever people of JW can you help me..... do you think as I suspect this is a hardware prob