Probably a toasted hard drive, but seeking 2nd (3rd, 4th) opinions

I just acquired a 1.42 G4 Mac Mini off CL. The seller said the hard drive was kaput, so I got it cheap. I've tried installing an OS with the original install disc and the 10.4 CPU drop-in upgrade DVD. When I run Disk Utility, it says everything is fine. Apple Hardware Test says everything is good too. I was able to install 10.3 from the original discs once, but the 10.4 upgrade couldn't find the 10.3 install and wouldn't run the upgrade. I reformatted and zeroed out all the data, and still no errors found. I got to about 1 tick away from completing a 10.3 install and it hung. It starts up and everything works fine from the boot CDs, so it seems the unit as a whole is functioning normally, just having issues with the hard drive. Maybe it's time to get out the putty knives...

I never had time to set the clock or anything that the PRAM keeps track of. When I got home, I opened the case and there was a LOT of dust and crap built up in it. I cleaned it all out, thinking maybe it was overheating. That didn't help. I put in a different hard drive (that was a project), and everything is working well. Not a bad little machine. Nice and quiet.

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