I think it's time for new storage, but I'm not quite sure

[Crazed_Anomaly]

System Specs:
i7 4770k 3.5ghz
16gb DDR3 2133mhz
Asus Z87-A MOBO
EVGA Gtx 1080ti FTW3
1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm
CORSAIR TX650m PSU

So, I originally built my system in December of 2013. Over the years, it has seen an upgrade from gtx 760, to gtx 980ti, and now a 1080ti. It's also seen an upgrade from 8gb to 16gb of ram. But despite all this time, I never made an upgrade to storage. I believe the time has come that my HDD is taking its last breaths. I have a fresh backup ready and the money to by the new equipment, but I want a final opinion before I do the deed.

Recently I began experiencing an issue where upon startup, the PC would lock at 100% disk usage and CPU usage at 0%, leaving the computer motionless. I fixed it by turning off the system and back on again. It would work for the day but the next day I'd have to do it again. This lasted about a week and then suddenly stopped. I did some fixes and got the disk usage to a responsible percentage. This was about three weeks ago and haven't had the problem at all since. All was well until last night. I own 130+ games on steam but lack the space to store them so I often have to delete and re download them, putting much wear on the drive. Last night I went to install a game, and then left the room. I returned 20ish minutes later to find the screen on the bios. When I clicked exit, it black screened and then reinitiated the bios. I forced the system off and restarted it, and it loaded into windows. This time though, it was very slow. The average time for as long as I can remember to fully load to desktop has been about 3 minutes. Last night it took 10 minutes. At noon today, it took 15 minutes. And right now, I'm currently starring at the login screen that has said "welcome" for the past 20 minutes. And now it's loaded but keeps freezing. I tried restarting the game download but it won't exceed 150kb/s which is very low for me and just about everybody who does have a toaster for a router.

So the question is," Is my drive practically dead? Or is there some other problem I could be missing?" It's had 3 and a half years of very rough use, so it wouldn't surprise me if it was done for. I'd like a second opinion before I go spend the time and money to redo the storage. Especially if I'm just going to find the same slow speeds.

 

[CountMike]

It's not dead unless a test program shows it. Get SeaTools and check it properly.

 

[Crazed_Anomaly]

It's not dead unless a test program shows it. Get SeaTools and check it properly.

I did. It passed the smart test but it is unbelievably slow. I've run tests on my other components too. All of which are fine.

 

[CountMike]

Maybe just too full and needs a good defrag ?

 

[Crazed_Anomaly]

Maybe just too full and needs a good defrag ?

Tried deleting a bunch of stuff. It's setting around 690gb of 1TB. My computer runs automatic defragmentation. It last ran yesterday. Im not sure what's going on. I loaded up a game last night and it started up fine and played well. My CPU and GPU are fine, I stress tested them both and the game I was playing (Ghost Recon Wildlands at 4K on Very High setting) was enough to put the through the ringer. I figure if it was them they would have failed. As soon as I went back to the desktop it was fine for a few minutes then the problems came back.

 

[Crazed_Anomaly]

I haven't tested my PSU. I figured that since I'm having problems boot failures it would have something to do with storage. Maybe it has low voltage or something. I'm not sure how to check this. I guess my MOBO could be a problem. I need to check the board for any damage. I'm not sure how to test it for problems. Other than that, the only thing I could think of is a bad hard drive. I'm at work now but I'm going to test it more this afternoon.

 

[RetiredChief]

Two things:
1) How full is the drive. For a OS (Boot) HDD, I recommend 70->75% max fill - you Need to leave room for defrag to run. For a Storage/Back-up drive with few writes, up to 85% is OK.
2) As CountMike said, You should run program to check Disk health (ie BAD sectors and Fragmentation) - My Guess is that A) you will find a high number of bad sectors. The program will try to relocate any data in bad sectors -> to a good sector. If it can not read that data - the whole file would be toast (A file can contain Multiple sectors). MY GUESS, Yes it's time to replace the HDD.

I find it hard to recommend a specific Brand, as almost all of the major brands are a crap shoot on their consumer models. I've shyed away from Seagate and Normally buy the WD Black (Last one was a 4 Gig WD Gold). Check out Newegg reviews - A) must take with gran of Salt, But where Number of reviews is > 100 it does provide a insight into which drive would be a better gamble. To Bad Samsung sold their F4 line to Seagate back in 2011 as That was a great drive. PS Don't buy the 3 TB model for any of the brands, for some reason they are not as reliable as the 2 or 4 TB model.

 

[Crazed_Anomaly]

Two things:
1) How full is the drive. For a OS (Boot) HDD, I recommend 70->75% max fill - you Need to leave room for defrag to run. For a Storage/Back-up drive with few writes, up to 85% is OK.
2) As CountMike said, You should run program to check Disk health (ie BAD sectors and Fragmentation) - My Guess is that A) you will find a high number of bad sectors. The program will try to relocate any data in bad sectors -> to a good sector. If it can not read that data - the whole file would be toast (A file can contain Multiple sectors). MY GUESS, Yes it's time to replace the HDD.

I find it hard to recommend a specific Brand, as almost all of the major brands are a crap shoot on their consumer models. I've shyed away from Seagate and Normally buy the WD Black (Last one was a 4 Gig WD Gold). Check out Newegg reviews - A) must take with gran of Salt, But where Number of reviews is > 100 it does provide a insight into which drive would be a better gamble. To Bad Samsung sold their F4 line to Seagate back in 2011 as That was a great drive. PS Don't buy the 3 TB model for any of the brands, for some reason they are not as reliable as the 2 or 4 TB model.

Thanks for the reply. I'm going to go home and try some more test just to be sure. I'm going to run the intel diagnostic tool to check the CPU and do a visual check of the motherboard. Is there anything I could do to test reliablity of the PSU? I doubt it's the problem but I want to cover my bases. I reserved a pick up for a WD Black 2TB and a 240gb sandisk SSD so if the test all show green, that's what I'll be putting in.

 

[RetiredChief]

Ref your PSU question. There are several software programs that will display your temperatures and Voltages (ie HWMonitor). On voltages - they may or may not display a correct value for the +12V and the +5 V. Tried two programs and neither displays my current desktop +12V and +5V correctly. Ignore the Neg 12V as it is not used.
That said, the BEST way is to use a voltmeter. YES they are not that expensive (Cheap one <$20 and they are easy to use. Simply turn off System, open case, insert Black meter lead into one of the center 2 pins of a 4 pin Molex connect, insert Red meter lead in to on end pin. Power on the computer. You will read either the +12V of the +5V. The other end of the Molex connect is the other voltage. (Yellow is +12V and red is +5V.
+5 V should be between 4.75 and 5.25 V and the +12V should be 11.5->12.5V
While I always recommend having a Voltmeter for someone that "Tinkers" with computers, they do sell a PSU tester.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=psu+tester&ignorear=0&N=-1&isNodeId=1

 

[RetiredChief]

Added: On checking PSU.
If you find a software program that displays your +12V and +5V correctly, then If +12V and +5V are with in tolerance then a 2nd check would be to A) place your CPU under load (ie can run Bench check of cpu-z, or intel's burn test) then run a program to tax video card (I run Furmark in a window) the +12V and +5 should stay with in tolerance (MY criteria is that the +12V should not drop more than 0.2V and be above 11.6V when under heavy load).

NOTE: you may find your +2V and +5V displayed in Your BIOS under health page. (But can not check effects of Full load)

If no software program, then Voltmeter is required.