tl;dr - On my Dell Inspiron 1525 running Windows 7: the harddrive-activity LED is almost always on, all programs load slower and frequently display the "Not Responding" text, large file transfers are painfully slow or impossible, and I've had 3 BSoD in 3 days.
The Longer Description of the Sequence of Events...
First, I thought that Firefox was the problem. I upgraded to Firefox 13, installed a new Flash version, and I started experiencing Flash-based browser problems. I researched this; it's a known problem, and the recommendation is to downgrade the Flash version. I did this, but I was still having really slow Firefox response/load times. And then I had a BSoD attack.
After a reboot, I ran an Avira virus scan and a MalwareBytes scan. Nothing suspicious was found, but the system responsiveness seemed to get worse. And then, and day later, I had another BSoD.
Finally, today, I said "Forget this! I'll just reinstall Windows." Now, the Dell Inspiron 1525 is a 64-bit machine, and I was running the 32-bit Windows. I have access to DreamSpark, so I downloaded the 64-bit version of Windows. I then tried to transfer this file to a USB device, and I received another BSoD. I restarted into Safe Mode and tried the transfer again, and the File Copy Window gave me a failure message. I said "Maaaaaaaaaan! Forget this, too!"
I reinstalled Windows with my 32-bit installation disk. The installation went fine. It installed some updates, and it seemed fine. Then I tried to do stuff: I tried to open the Task Manager. It took a long time to load, and it showed the system as mostly idle (which it was). Then I tried to use Internet Explorer, and it almost perpetually showed the "Not Responding" text. If it gave me a chance to operate it, that chance was over in seconds, and then it often failured.
So, is my harddrive failing?
The Longer Description of the Sequence of Events...
First, I thought that Firefox was the problem. I upgraded to Firefox 13, installed a new Flash version, and I started experiencing Flash-based browser problems. I researched this; it's a known problem, and the recommendation is to downgrade the Flash version. I did this, but I was still having really slow Firefox response/load times. And then I had a BSoD attack.
After a reboot, I ran an Avira virus scan and a MalwareBytes scan. Nothing suspicious was found, but the system responsiveness seemed to get worse. And then, and day later, I had another BSoD.
Finally, today, I said "Forget this! I'll just reinstall Windows." Now, the Dell Inspiron 1525 is a 64-bit machine, and I was running the 32-bit Windows. I have access to DreamSpark, so I downloaded the 64-bit version of Windows. I then tried to transfer this file to a USB device, and I received another BSoD. I restarted into Safe Mode and tried the transfer again, and the File Copy Window gave me a failure message. I said "Maaaaaaaaaan! Forget this, too!"
I reinstalled Windows with my 32-bit installation disk. The installation went fine. It installed some updates, and it seemed fine. Then I tried to do stuff: I tried to open the Task Manager. It took a long time to load, and it showed the system as mostly idle (which it was). Then I tried to use Internet Explorer, and it almost perpetually showed the "Not Responding" text. If it gave me a chance to operate it, that chance was over in seconds, and then it often failured.
So, is my harddrive failing?
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