Is my HDD dying??

[Guardianx1015]

Hello,
So a few days ago my hard drive made a weird well clicking noise I guess it would be and then windows crashed. Well now everything is loading very slowly *if at all* and it will freeze for like a few seconds to a minute every now and then. Its a WD Green SATA II hdd and is about 2 and a half years old now. If it is failing on me then is it possible that I could get windows off of it?

 

[Guardianx1015]

Hmm it says it's okay...

 

[WyomingKnott]

I can't resist muddying the waters by replying to your topic. Is your HDD dying? Yes. So are all of mine. It's just a question of how soon.

In practice, it's an awfully good idea to back everything up and try booting from another drive. If this is fast, then your drive is a problem.

Having it two-and-a-half years doesn't mean much in a small sample of one drive. If the mean time between failure is a year, mine could die after a week (it did) and Harry's could last 20 years.

Possible to get Windows off it? Yes. Buy a new drive. Using the tool of your choice (EASEUS provides a perfectly functional one for home use FREE), and preferably booting off of something other than the questionable drive (you do have a few spares around, don't you), do an image copy of the entire drive to a new, blank drive of the same size or larger. The image copy will copy the whole OS and the fiddly little invisible bits like the Master Boot Record, Sector Boot Records, and boot loaders.

Power down, unplug the old drive and leave the new one in. It should magically boot off the new one!