Hard drive failing?

[mitsigtomk2]

Hi there! A few months ago i started having issue with my ram building up to the point that i was using 96% while sat on desktop ( i had the usual crap running like steam / discord / chrome ) I checked task manager and the highest usage was chrome with 550~mb followed by discord with 100~mb.

In the last few weeks i've started having new issues, my hdd has started making scratching / scraping noises, programs and games are taking longer and longer to load and in the last few days i've started getting a dark spot in the bottom right of my monitor which goes away after a restart or two.

My specs are as follows:
Windows 10
msi gtx 970 4gb
i7 4790k quad core @ 4.0ghz
msi Z97 - GD65
2x4 gb ddr3 1600 corsair vengeance
corsair rm650 psu
boot drive: kingston 120 ssd
storage drive: western digital 1tb hdd

Not sure what is going on, i am contemplating buiying new ram / boot drive and storage drives or just buy a new rig. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[1LiquidPC]

Ran any HDD health test programs? Should be a WD tool you can download. The "dark spot" should be unrelated. Any recent driver changes?

 

[mitsigtomk2]

Ran any HDD health test programs? Should be a WD tool you can download. The "dark spot" should be unrelated. Any recent driver changes?

Thank you for the reply, i have done a wmic > diskdrive get status in the cmd and that came back positive i have also run the WD data lifeguard and that came back positive aswell. I haven't updated any drivers for a few weeks now.

 

[USAFRet]

1. If a spinning hard drive is making new noises, prepare for replacement.

2. If a spinning hard drive is brand new and running seamlessly perfect, prepare for replacement.

Hardware dies. All of it, eventually.
Hardware with moving parts even more so.

Either it does tomorrow, or it dies eventually.
If you wait until 5 minutes after it dies, you have waited too long. And you absolutely cannot predict that 5 minute window.

No matter what happens with a drive, your data should never be at risk.
backup backup backup.
Given a viable backup, a dead drive simply means "aw crap, I need a new drive".


However...
"a dark spot in the bottom right of my monitor" has nothing to do with your drive.