What happens when a hard drive fails, what will I have to reinstall

[FirstTimebuilder777]

I am worried about my hard drive failing because it makes noises. The drive is a seagate 7200rpm barracuda 1tb. I have nothing to back up to and am wondering what happens when a drive fails, will my gpu drivers my, mobo chipset drivers, and other drivers be gone, will I have to reinstall those. I know I will have to reinstall windows and all my files/apps will be gone but I am not to worried about that because I only had built the pc about 1.5 months ago. Will it damage other components if it dies? Should I even worry about failure if it makes noises when idle or in use? It passed all seatools tests but the noises are loud and persist. I bought the drive from amazon and it has passed its return date if it fails will seagate refund me or give me a new one?
Thank you in advanced
PS sorry for bad english

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Yes you will lose all Data , you will need to clean install the OS and drivers on a new HDD.

 

[Luminary]

If the drive is making very loud noises that is a bad sign, and often a symptom of the drive failing.

1) If the drive fails all data will be lost. Operating System, drivers, files.

2) It won't damage any other hardware if the drive fails.

If the drive fails you should be able to RMA it to Seagate, their drive warranty should cover it.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Some will make a little noise but if it gets loud it should be replaced.

 

[FirstTimebuilder777]

Yes you will lose all Data , you will need to clean install the OS and drivers on a new HDD.

Okay that is what I was thinking, but do you think it will fail considering it passed the seatools tests and is there any other tests I could perform to see if it is running at normal speeds. Thank you for your time

 

[jsmithepa]

It won't affect other hardware but you will have to re-install everything from scratch.

Having been on my 10th build, I always make it a habit of making a copy of any driver that I install into a new system, that way anything happens, I have my stuff in one place.

Beyond that, even if your current system works perfectly, everybody needs backup, is not matter of IF but WHEN. You may think you have tons of time and patience to recover from a crash. Me, I have no patience.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

A little noise is usually not an issue , just keep checking the status of it for issues.

 

[Luminary]

It would also be a very good idea to find yourself a backup solution so that if your drive does fail you don't lose any important data.

 

[FirstTimebuilder777]

A little noise is usually not an issue , just keep checking the status of it for issues.

Thank you I also wonder if a bad hard drive could cause hitching frames in games as I get a constant 60 fps but the occasional drop in frames/hitching in World of Warcraft. I would really like to test the performance of the drive to see if it is running up to speed ant suggestion of how to do that? Thank you for the speedy response.
Also the noises it makes are of decent volume I can clearly hear them when the pc is idle or if my speakers are not blasting

 

[FirstTimebuilder777]

It would also be a very good idea to find yourself a backup solution so that if your drive does fail you don't lose any important data.

What data would be considered important? other than the time it takes to install my games I will not lose anything else. Is there data I should worry about losing?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Then your fine no need to back up if all you have to worry about is games.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Test it with HDTUNE.

 

[FirstTimebuilder777]

Test it with HDTUNE.

Cool thanks will do when I get home. Do you know if it can cause stuttering fps in games like WoW if my hard drive is bad

 

[FirstTimebuilder777]

Test it with HDTUNE.

Cool thanks will do when I get home. Do you know if it can cause stuttering fps in games like WoW if my hard drive is bad

 

[Luminary]

Yes, a failing drive will certainly affect game performance.

 

[FirstTimebuilder777]

Yes, a failing drive will certainly affect game performance.

Would the in game hitching and lag from a bad hard drive damage my gpu cpu or other components
Thank you

 

[Luminary]

No, it won't damage your other hardware.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

No it can't harm other components.

 

[FirstTimebuilder777]

Test it with HDTUNE.

Average transfer rate 167.1 mb/s
did an error scan no errors quick and full scan
access time 15.2 ms