Hard Drive Failing?!

[Gravez98]

So I have a standard Western Digital Blue 1TB Hard Drive, which is only 1 year old.

I feel like it is failing as I have had to reinstall Windows 8.1 10 times! When I reinstall the OS I install everything (Driver wise.) I then shutdown my PC five times (over a week) and I get into the continuous 'Automatic Repair' loop. The only way yo get out of it is to reinstall Windows 8.1.

I tried to prevent this by only putting my PC to sleep and never shutting down. This caused other issues like I would get notifications from Action Centre saying 'Error on Drive, Please restart to repair' This gets me into the 'Automatic Repair' loop.
If this doesn't happen I get the 'Blue Screen Of Death' loop from waking it up from sleep. Only way to get out of this loop is to install Windows 7 from USB ISO and then reinstall Windows 8.1.
Another thing to mention is that my Hard Drive usage often goes to 100% / 99% and stays on there for 2 minutes freezing my PC until done. Happens every hour - 3 hours. This happens when waking the PC but takes 5 minutes to fully load.
I have had to reinstall Windows 8.1 over 15 times due to this.

Now after reading the following information do I need a new Hard Drive? Thank You!

PC Components (Pre Built PC):

CPU: AMD FX-4300
GPU: AMD Sapphire Radeon R7 250
RAM: Kingston HyperX 1600MHz (4GB x2)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Blue 1TB 7200RPM
PSU: Standard Winpower 550w
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3

 

[kanewolf]

Start by running memtest overnight to verify you don't have a RAM problem. I know the WD official representatives will chime in with a WD tool, but you can also check the SMART status of your disk with CrystalDiskInfo. It will identify if your disk has stored any information that would signal an impending failure.

 

[Gravez98]

Start by running memtest overnight to verify you don't have a RAM problem. I know the WD official representatives will chime in with a WD tool, but you can also check the SMART status of your disk with CrystalDiskInfo. It will identify if your disk has stored any information that would signal an impending failure.

I got this from CystalDiskInfo http://gyazo.com/e9882798d0f79f046a66ffabb6ad3384 Plus could you link me to memtest please?

 

[Tronyx]

Follow this article:

http://www.howtogeek.com/134735/how-to-see-if-your-hard-drive-is-dying/

and see what the results are.

There could be many other factors as well, but that should at least give you some info on your drive.

 

[Ra_V_en]

Ugh yep that sounds bad, those few mins freezes might be a sign of a bad sectors... let me just dig out some proper boot CD with diagnosis tools.

 

[kanewolf]

Start by running memtest overnight to verify you don't have a RAM problem. I know the WD official representatives will chime in with a WD tool, but you can also check the SMART status of your disk with CrystalDiskInfo. It will identify if your disk has stored any information that would signal an impending failure.

I got this from CystalDiskInfo http://gyazo.com/e9882798d0f79f046a66ffabb6ad3384 Plus could you link me to memtest please?

OK, with that screen shot, I will say your disk is on the way to failure. On a healthy disk all three of those yellow items should be zero in the RAW data. You need to begin backing up your data (most critical first) and then you could attempt to do a system image backup. With sectors that are failing the system image backup might fail or the installation on a new disk might not function. Possible worst case is that you have to install windows from scratch on a new disk. Maybe take this as an opportunity to upgrade your OS to an SSD and use the replacement disk for data and less frequently access programs.

 

[Gravez98]

Follow this article:

http://www.howtogeek.com/134735/how-to-see-if-your-hard-drive-is-dying/

and see what the results are.

There could be many other factors as well, but that should at least give you some info on your drive.

I followed the article and here's my results

CrystalDiskInfo: http://gyazo.com/e9882798d0f79f046a66ffabb6ad3384

Command Prompt: Status: Ok - Ok

 

[Ra_V_en]

kanewolf's answer valid... get ready for RMA, if you still are able to run windows... that :
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=810&sid=3

If not give a sign ill dig some dos based Data Life Guard.

 

[Gravez98]

Start by running memtest overnight to verify you don't have a RAM problem. I know the WD official representatives will chime in with a WD tool, but you can also check the SMART status of your disk with CrystalDiskInfo. It will identify if your disk has stored any information that would signal an impending failure.

I got this from CystalDiskInfo http://gyazo.com/e9882798d0f79f046a66ffabb6ad3384 Plus could you link me to memtest please?

OK, with that screen shot, I will say your disk is on the way to failure. On a healthy disk all three of those yellow items should be zero in the RAW data. You need to begin backing up your data (most critical first) and then you could attempt to do a system image backup. With sectors that are failing the system image backup might fail or the installation on a new disk might not function. Possible worst case is that you have to install windows from scratch on a new disk. Maybe take this as an opportunity to upgrade your OS to an SSD and use the replacement disk for data and less frequently access programs.

I have reinstalled my OS 15 times! Due to this issue. I'm a college student and I haven't got the funds for a SSD. I will have to replace with another HDD. Are you possitive it's the HDD which is failing? I don't want to buy another HDD when that isn't the case.

 

[Gravez98]

kanewolf's answer valid... get ready for RMA, if you still are able to run windows... that :
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=810&sid=3

If not give a sign ill dig some dos based Data Life Guard.

I have downloaded the WD Data Life Guard and it says I'm all good but I'm obviously not when I have had to reinstall Windows 8.1 every 2 weeks.

 

[Ra_V_en]

Well it seems the same with WD as with Seagates, their RMA tools just need the drive to be completely dead before you send them back it seems.
This way or another Reallocated Sector Count means that there are physical bad sectors on the drive already which are marked by the drive thus it will try to stay away from them to not get worse. The thing is if it shows up it either gonna stay like this or gonna get worse and after my experience with few of my drives i can predict the second one... its a mater of time. I had exactly the same issues, unstable behavior, random freezes, crashes and rising Reallocated Sectors, i couldn't bear it anymore thus I've just put so much load on that drive (looped surface scan) until the RMA software finally throw an error.

You are saying there is issues with the OS, we have a confirmation something wrong is happening with the drive....face the truth: this drive is not reliable anymore and you need another one. If its still on warranty you can test it as long as you will finally be able to send it for RMA. Just keep in mind they might not send you a new drive back, likely they will send you some kind of repaired/refurbished drive which is not really at the same level as the new one.

 

[Gravez98]

Well it seems the same with WD as with Seagates, their RMA tools just need the drive to be completely dead before you send them back it seems.
This way or another Reallocated Sector Count means that there are physical bad sectors on the drive already which are marked by the drive thus it will try to stay away from them to not get worse. The thing is if it shows up it either gonna stay like this or gonna get worse and after my experience with few of my drives i can predict the second one... its a mater of time. I had exactly the same issues, unstable behavior, random freezes, crashes and rising Reallocated Sectors, i couldn't bear it anymore thus I've just put so much load on that drive (looped surface scan) until the RMA software finally throw an error.

You are saying there is issues with the OS, we have a confirmation something wrong is happening with the drive....face the truth: this drive is not reliable anymore and you need another one. If its still on warranty you can test it as long as you will finally be able to send it for RMA. Just keep in mind they might not send you a new drive back, likely they will send you some kind of repaired/refurbished drive which is not really at the same level as the new one.

Thank you for your reply! Do you recommend a 750GB-1TB 7200 RPM Drive which is good performance wise and is reliable?

 

[Ra_V_en]

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-update-september-2014/

Well i considered WD's to be quite reliable anyways, had only issues with Seagates before...
The link above points to Hitachi but after seeing few Caviars dieing lately on this forum I'm confused myself.
I guess you can minimize the risk going after reports like this but there will be always a chance something might go wrong.