Constantly computer speed issues and freezing, time to replace my hard drive?

[theawesomeonehhh]

Over the last six months or so, I've had computer issues constantly. Normally i can fix it, often something just needs optimizing and things are fixed, but now im having a unusable computer ~once a week. Im out of fixes, and apparently so is google. A friend of mine suggested defragging, then reformatting the hard drive to see if this effected things. It did slightly, There was a slight performance boost but there is still constant lag, freezing and loud noises coming from my computer. from my limited understanding of computers, I clearly don't have malware, which leads me to believe its a hardware issue.

Im currently using an internal hard drive, and was wondering, Should i look at replacing my hard drive, especially due to it being almost 5 years old?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, @theawesomeonehhh!

It sounds like you most probably are dealing with a failed HDD if there are even clicking noises coming from it! I'd strongly recommend you backup as much of your files as you can somewhere off-site to an external HDD or some other storage location and then proceed to looking around for a replacement. After you've made sure that your data is backed up, you should also run the HDD manufacturer's brand-specific diagnostic tool to determine what is the health and SMART status of the drive. I'm not sure if you have tried this already, but you should also swap the SATA cables and the SATA port where the hard drive is connected to the motherboard. If you have access to another PC, try plugging it there as well to see how it will behave. If the issues are still present or there are any abnormalities with the SMART attributes, then you most definitely need to replace it ASAP.

Keep me posted with the troubleshooting & if you have any more questions.
SuperSoph_WD