Is my hard drive failing

[Josh12419]

Hello,
So recently my gaming rig has been running into several problems recently with it's booting every time it the bios does it's thing the Windows 7 logo sometimes doesn't show up resulting in a black screen but sometimes it does and when it does... It just freezes at the logo... The odd occasion it actually goes through just dandy.. I had problems before all started when I installed my new HD Radeon 6670 Asus Edition when some registry's kept getting corrupted once I resolved that.. It was fine for a couple of days but then again the registry corrupted again and then resorted to doing the black screen.. So then I thought it was the PSU the rig came with... It was a dirt cheap 12 pound Tesla PSU 500w and it thought it was failing... So of course naturally I changed it to the CX500w PSU and ruled out the power supply having problems and double checking the connections it is all done correctly... And at first it ran perfectly but then what seems to be the registry again windows 7 explorer froze once more and restarted the whole computer and again the Black screen came on back.. Now not only I ruled of the PSU... And the graphics card... AND updating my MOBO to the latest drivers I can only point to one thing... And that is my Hard Drive might be failing... Because sometimes when I do a disc recovery all of Windows 7 doesn't exist well seems to be that way... And when I try to pick the C: disk because that is where it would be it would say that if has no drivers pratically on the disk... I would try to do a repair but then the computer would say that it did not find any solutions and that I should restart... And only sometimes that restarting does boot up normally but it is like 3/10 times it wouldn't boot up normally after attempting to repair it via the disk... So one can assume it could be a failing HD after doing some research and I would like someone to help confirm this theory if it might be a failing HD

Specs:
FX4100 3.6ghz Bulldozer Quad Core
HD Radeon 6670 Asus Edition DDR5
78LMT-USB3 Mother Board
CX500 PSU 500w
8 Gig Ram DDR3

 

[Kjwinden]

The convenient thing about most stores (I can confirm this at office max and office depot) is they have a blanket return policy. So you could go buy a HDD, install a copy of windows on it and if that works you have your problem.

From there if you find a better deal on the HDD on new egg, amazon or microcenter you can just erase the partition and return the HDD to the store.

Just make sure you double check the return policy.

 

[Josh12419]

Well I would go for the Amazon option... So what you are saying is with some HD you can actually return the HD if it didn't resolve the issue if the Return policy is stated that way?

 

[Kjwinden]

No im saying you do this: go to your local office max/office depot. Ask what their return policy is. Go home and plug in the HDD and install windows on it, if that fixes your problem you know that it was your HDD. Look on amazon/microcenter/new egg. If they have a better deal on a better HDD or the one you bought, return it. At the counter if they ask what was wrong (they most likely wont), say "turns out this isn't what I was looking for." Get you're money back and go buy your product off of amazon.

Make sure before you return the HD you delete the windows partition you installed.

 

[ss202sl]

Have you run any HDD diagnostics?
Most HDD manufacturers have some type of diagnostics that are available.

 

[smorizio]

make a hirem boot cd...run memtest and hd diags from the cd. most new hd going to have a warranty on them so i would do a rma first..cost you less money.

 

[Josh12419]

Not that I am aware of really... I don't even know how and even if I could... I wouldn't be able to boot it to do so x3

 

[smorizio]

use hd tune read the model and serial number of the drive..go to the vendor support page..the have warranty check by ser# for there hard drives...put in ser # and if it under warranty start the rma. when you download hirem boot cd iso image. there a tool to make a bootable usb stick.

 

[Kjwinden]

ss202sl and smorizio...I would have recommended to do diagnostics but I've dealt with HD problems before and from what he's saying it sounds like HW diagnostics wouldnt get him anywhere.

smorizio- good on you for recommending to check the warranty...I jumped that gun and went right to comparative TS- we all make mistakes.

However I would still recommend to go get another drive and try loading windows that way if the HDD is not under warranty.

 

[Josh12419]

I will try to get the computer to boot up and if it does at all I will try formatting and reinstall windows 7 and see if that at all works

 

[Josh12419]

*update* My computer booted up just normally just this hour like nothing happened I will keep in touch if it things go weird again