Is it safe to assume that this hard drive has failed?

[nkatz565]

I've had this 1TB internal HDD running for about 2 or 3 months now, and for the last month I've been having problems. The computer was constantly crashing. I assumed it was Window's fault, tried some fixes and it seemed to work. A week later it crashed and now fails when it tries to load the OS. I still thought it was Windows, and have been trying unsuccessfully to reinstall Windows onto it for days. The problems that occur seem to point towards an hard disk issue. When I try installing windows, it says it was having trouble partitioning the drive. I figured I would try partitioning manually through the command prompt in recovery tools. It gave no problems selecting the drive, cleaning it, and creating a partition, but when I tried to format the drive, it was stuck at 0% for 3 hours.

Another thing that may be worthwhile to mention is that I have been able to run a version of linux off a live USB with absolutely no problems.

My conclusion is that the hard drive has failed, or the SATA cables. I will try to test new SATA cables if i can find an extra one, but for now I'm not convinced that is the problem. Can anyone weigh in on whether this is a problem with the hard drive, or if something else is causing this?

 

[maxwellmelon]

download something like ultimate boot disk or another program that you can used to check the hard drive without windows involved. most manufactures have test programs available for download on there website(for example if a western digital download there program) and some of them will even give you a code which you would need to do a RMA if its still under warranty. these programs will also let u know if there is a coummnication issue going on too as they do a cable test

 

[nkatz565]

download something like ultimate boot disk or another program that you can used to check the hard drive without windows involved. most manufactures have test programs available for download on there website(for example if a western digital download there program) and some of them will even give you a code which you would need to do a RMA if its still under warranty. these programs will also let u know if there is a coummnication issue going on too as they do a cable test

It is a Western Digital HDD. I will download and run their test program tomorrow and I will post the results here.

 

[nkatz565]

I've run WD's diagnostic program. It froze and wouldn't abort. I tried all the tests they offered, and none of them have completed. I'm now sure the HDD is bad.