Mac G4 Cube with OS 10.3.9 Start-up/HD issues

Question

Hi. I've gone through a number of these posts to see what suggestions are here, but decided to ask for a straight answer from any one kind enough to answer.
Starting up my 2000 G4 Power PC Cube gives me a number of different start-up failure scenerios, freezes on grey screen, frozen blue screen with spinning wheel, grey Apple screen freeze, and they almost always end up at the Darwin/BSD (my-computer.local) (console) Login: white type on black screen. I'm unable to start -up in safe mode, it won't move past the grey apple screen.
I've run my OS X Disk Utility First aid and 2 Disc Warrior CDs and although one time the OS X Disk Utility First aid CD found a node error, it usually completes the scan and says the HD is OK. I also have Disk Warrior CDs Version 3 and 4, and although the 3 often seems to complete it's scan and will make the system restart successfully occasionally (like right now), the CD 4 gives me a message that the HD is too severely damaged to create a replacement file and doesn't do anything good.
When the hardware test is done on both Disk Warrior CDs, I consistently get this message: This HD's built in SMART diagnostics indicate a failure or future pending failure that could result in loss of data.
So, now to the question... Should I fork out another $90 for a copy of Tech Tool Pro or any other repair CD you wise folks might recommend in hopes of repairing (fixing) the drive, or should I accept that the HD needs to really truly be replaced and call the repair shop to take it in for the surgery. Any thoughts on what a replaced HD/labor might cost? Would it be a better move to just buy a new Mini? Thanks for your help and advice.

Answer 1

Here's a straight answer, given you have explored the issue and used advanced disk repair utilities - buy a new hard drive and install it yourself.
For less than $100 you'll be back in business.