Is My Hard Drive Really Failing?

[ScourgeTH]

Over the past few weeks I've been experiencing "missing DLL" files, "bad image" errrors and constant BSOD problems causing me to reset windows multiple times. I tested all of my parts numerous times with no error, and I tested the drive about 8 times on 4 different times, so basically 32 times. And all of those tests read that the drive was fine. Now I've had my HDD which is a 1TB seagate drive for about 3 and a half years which is about the average life cycle of any standard drive so I wouldn't be surprised if it's failing in disguise, but I figured I'd ask you guys first. Is my drive really failing? Or could it be something else? I've already established that I'm purchasing an SSD within the next few days or so to reinstall windows on that drive and use this drive as just extra storage in the meantime.

P.S. I did get a disk read error a week ago, but I reset windows again and I'm still getting DLL errors and some applications are not functioning.

Computer Specs:
Intel i7 3770K (Not Overclocked)
AsRock Extreme 6 Z77
EVGA 660ti 3GB
Seagate Barracuda HDD 1TB (Windows Installation Drive)
Western Digital Caviar Blue HDD 1TB
Thermaltake 600W Power Supply
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler
2x4GB Kingston Hyper X DDR3 1600 MHz
2x4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, ScourgeTH.

What kind of tests have you done? Basically the best option would be to test the drive with its manufacturer's diagnostic tool. Other than that if you haven't backed you your data already, you should go ahead and do that, just to be on the safe side.
Try the HDD with a different SATA port and different SATA cables, to see if those issue continue after that.

If the drive is physically fine, it could be a partition and/or a file system issue, so you can run chkdsk as well. Open CMD as admin ant type chkdsk X: /r and press "enter" (where "X" is the letter of the drive you wish to check so don't forget to change it with the appropriate one).

Hope that helps. Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD

 

[geofelt]

Seagate has "seatools" diagnostic program for their drives.
You can run that, but I doubt you will find your problem there.

If your drive were really failing, I would expect to see errors other than just missing DLL files.

You can run CHKDSK which will look for logical errors and missing links
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb491051.aspx

 

[ScourgeTH]

Hey there, ScourgeTH.

What kind of tests have you done? Basically the best option would be to test the drive with its manufacturer's diagnostic tool. Other than that if you haven't backed you your data already, you should go ahead and do that, just to be on the safe side.
Try the HDD with a different SATA port and different SATA cables, to see if those issue continue after that.

If the drive is physically fine, it could be a partition and/or a file system issue, so you can run chkdsk as well. Open CMD as admin ant type chkdsk X: /r and press "enter" (where "X" is the letter of the drive you wish to check so don't forget to change it with the appropriate one).

Hope that helps. Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD

Before I reset windows, I ran chkdsk /r on the suspected drive and it completed successfully while replacing some indexes and said it fixed it. Before the reset, my PC was stuck in the "Automatic Repair Loop" with a corrupt profile BSOD and I ran every single test that SeaTools has to offer with no reported errors. After the windows reset, I cannot run SeaTools anymore due to a "corrupt or missing DLL" file. Gonna try another SATA port see if it helps.

 

[ScourgeTH]

Seagate has "seatools" diagnostic program for their drives.
You can run that, but I doubt you will find your problem there.

If your drive were really failing, I would expect to see errors other than just missing DLL files.

You can run CHKDSK which will look for logical errors and missing links
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb491051.aspx

Before I reset windows, I got 3 BSOD errors telling me my windows installation was corrupt as well as the profile. It was stuck in the "Automatic repair loop" and the only way out of it was a full reset. The error in windows logs showed a "disk read error." But seatools shows the drive is physically fine.