Original internal hard drive problems - advice please

hello forum members, i am looking for advice with my situation and would be grateful for any suggestions.
here it is, i have a 2003 model dual 2gb G5 shipped with a 160 Serial ATA internal hard drive.
i purchased a second 500 WD drive becuase the 160gb drive seriously malfunctioned, disk utility, apple jack nor disk warrior could help and i had delete and reinstall the 160 drive. I then purchased the second drive to act as a safe guard against loosing some serious amounds of data again (once bitten, twice shy).
only now the 160 has gone again. it allowed me to fix with disk warrior (or so i thought), but when i changed it back to the start up disk it stopped functioning properly (SMART status now saying "not supported"). It will allow me to view some of the files that are on there, but when i try to open anything i get the spinning beach ball and it makes a very repetative noise and doesn't do anything for ages, sometimes allowing me too look inside folders after a while, but not allowing me to move anything.
i have lost all trust in this drive, is it the drive or have i done something wrong? if i replace the 160 with a second WD would my computer still function or could it be the WD that is causing the problems?
any help or advice would be greatly appreciated
Thanks in advance

When a four year old drive starts acting up, you should replace it; zero the drive and hope it can be used as an archive backup - AFTER zeroing the drive or using (Speedtools etc) to map out bad blocks.
You should have made the 500GB your main drive. Also always keep TWO backups. The 500GB would also be faster.
Keep one backup at least always off line, even while backing up to your alternate drive. And have a bootable backup of the last OS revision. A bootable drive set aside just for emergencies - for running DW, Applejack, TTPro etc. Then keep your backups current with CCC or SuperDuper.
SMART isn't that SMART or good at predicting. Zeroing a drive every year or so is always a good idea. As is a backup - Erase - Restore from time to time.
FireWire and FireWire/SATA drive cases are one way to hold your backups. 500GB WD drive from OWC is less than $120.

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    LAME ATTEMPTS AT PROBLEM SOLVING THAT HAVE MADE THINGS WORSE
    Panic had set in, which never solves anything, so I don't remember what order I performed which tasks, between searching for clues in this forum, and convincing myself that that would be faster than trying to compose a question, waiting for a response, etc.
    The first two things I did, and I can't remember which I did first (both from Keyboard Commands during Restart):
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    PRAM Reset
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    I tried restarting without extensions.
    I would get errors that said something like "Not Enough Memory to Open Finder".
    I tried booting from Disc 1 of the Software Restore Disk, which only wanted to destroy my data.
    I tried booting from the OS 10 disk, with the same result.
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    This is where I am now:
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    Thank you all so much for your patience in perusing and pursuing this.
    Sincerely,
    Patterson
    Power Mac G4 Quicksilver 867   Mac OS 9.2.x   17" Studio Display, 512MB RAM

    Thank you Rodney and John,
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    -Wipe it, Partition it, and clone my System Drive onto it, as a spare bootable drive in case my OEM System Drive failed.
    Copying the Media files onto the New Drive and moving the System Drive's Media files into the Trash worked great: huge improvement in Rendering, etc.
    Before shutting down for the night I Emptied the Trash, and was pleased with the amount of space I'd freed up on the System Drive.
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    Today, I replaced the Backup Battery, pushed the PMU, re-attached the AC, and Powered Up with the case open as per your suggestion.
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    I powered down, removed the Ribbon and Power cables from the original "Master" drive, reinstalled the Jumper on the New Drive as "Master", plugged the End of the Ribbon and the Power cables into the New "Master" drive and powered up. The screen went to the "?" within 20 seconds instead of 4+ minutes, and no more "buzzing".
    I put the Apple Hardware Tools Disk in, ran the "long" test, and everything came out fine.
    I have to abandon this for now, but thanks again for your previous advice, and any more you may have!
    Cheers,
    Patterson

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