Mechanical hard drive broken or corrupted data OS

OK, here's the story. Moved away 5 years ago and didn't bring my PC with me. Took it apart before I left and put all the components in their original boxes and stored them in a safe dry place.
Just went home after 5 years and retrieved my PC and assembled it a couple of days ago.

IMPORTANT DETAIL: Before I disassembled my PC back in July of 2013 I had experienced a hardware and/or software problem with my USB ports and not being able to log in to windows.

I broke in using a flash drive with Ubuntu on it to rescue my music. I put a link to that thread for details that may help.

Last known issue detailed here - http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1738582/tom-hardware-usb-ports-lose-functionality-reaching-windows-log-screen.html


System Specs / Info:

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58-USB3
CPU: Intel Core i7 950
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 470 1280MB
Soundcard: Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium Fatality PRO
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB
Power Supply: Corsair TX Series 850 Watt
Physical Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series DDR3 (3 x 2GB)
Mouse: Gigabyte M8000X Performance Laser Mouse
Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow 2013 - Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

NOW, the current situation May 31st, 2018:

Bare with me. I'm going to try and include as much detail and some example pictures. Hope it helps.

I assembled the PC and at first I managed to log in a couple times. Now I can't log in at all. It powers up gets to the verifying dmi pool data screen and then shuts off. It will continue to restart and make it to that screen over and over again unless I switch off the supply. I think it's on for a total of 10-15 seconds. Sometimes it won't do this. It will make it to that screen and then immediately go to another screen. The Ubuntu startup GRUB screen where I have four options to select from but my keyboard doesn't work so I can't select anything. No working keyboard just like 5 years ago.

I have the hard drive, Blu-ray disk drive, the ram, and graphics cards plugged in. Trying to keep it to bare bones components until I can find a solution.

I have gone to a computer repair shop for advice. I showed the same picture to some guy and he said it was the hard drive for sure. He looked at the picture for 3 seconds and seemed to know right away. Not sure I trust someone willing to jump to conclusions that quickly. Then they offered replacements and computer diagnostics for outlandish amounts of money.

It's a mechanical hard drive and he told me they last about 5 years max. This hard drive got 1.5-2 years of use. Date on the drive says October 23 2010. I bought in 2011 and took my PC apart in July 2013. Not even 2 years of minimal to moderate demand on this drive, and apparently it's garbage.

So, is it garbage? Do hard drives have a shelf life or can I wipe this drive somehow and format it for a fresh OS install? Have Windows 7 and Ubuntu just made a mess out of the thing? I was contemplating upgrading to a SSD drive but I don't want to buy hardware if I can fix what I've got, or especially if the drive is not the problem in addition to me not being the PC enthusiast/gamer I used to be.

Is it another piece of hardware?

I've been using an Acer Aspire X3400 mini desktop for 5 years now. I abuse the thing. Haven't cleaned it once and my Razer keyboard and Gigabyte mouse are operating just fine. At the time of the Windows crash on my gaming PC the USB ports shut down and they operated again with the Ubuntu rescue flash drive. Just another clue.

I need help guys/gals. Thank you for all your advice in advance.