i have been having trouble with my computer for the longest time now, and as it turns out, the problem is that i am having hard drive failure. so what can i do? i want to recover some files from it, but if the things busted, is that even a good idea?

i shopped around for another one, and i found one i like for about 70 bucks(yeah i'm cheap i know). i figure it will do nicely, mostly becuase its 500 gigs. i found others that were wildly different with prices that didn't seem to match size at all, so is there other stuff i need to take into consideration?

also: My manufacturer never gave me a copy of windows to go with my machine, the jerks, so i've had to procure one by other means. not illegal mind you. thought i'd add that little tid bit in case someone has been through something similar.

First off, if you're having a harddrive failure, you'll want to see if it's a simple error that your HDD can fix.

Open command prompt (run--cmd, or type "CMD" in the search bar of your start menu).
once open, type " chkdsk /f "

Then it'll ask if you want to do it upon a restart. Click "y" for yes.

I do this a lot at work and with one computer I have with a crappy refurb hard drive. It tends to get it working for a while.

Secondly:

What OS are you using?

If your manufacturer didn't provide you a copy of windows via disk, then most likely it's an image on your computer. I would recommend going online to see what you can do to copy that image to another hard drive,.

Ideally, it'd be best to be able to install both HDDs and copy things over.

Thirdly:

What is the manufacturer? A lot of them have restore options, drivers, etc on their website.

well, i am running checkdisk right now, and lo and behold, its taken four hours and it only got to 11 percent! i called my dad, and he told me that could mean the hard drive is failing. on top of that, my windows has been having all sorts of problems lately, where it had to revert back to a previous point before i installed several programs, the windows itself doesn't always load up, i ran a game and it not only stopped working, it destroyed the windows start up directory.

I'm thinking it may be time to just buy a new harddrive, and see if that helps!

If you just want to recover some files, and Windows isn't loading, maybe booting a Linux Live CD would be a good solution...

For recovering data, if you can still access your HD, you might be able to recover some stuff. It would be better to boot from another device though. Either a bootable USB stick or DVD, or another hard drive with an OS on it. Less risk of damaging it further this way. There's some apps that allow recovering stuff from damaged file systems, but I don't know of any free ones. Anyway, if you have anything really important that isn't backed up, that's your priority right now.

For buying a new HD, Just make sure that your MB & power supply supports whatever type of connection the hard drive expect (probably SATA). Not that you're likely to encounter problems, pretty much everything is SATA these days.

As for those with prices that didn't match their sizes, they were probably SSD drives. Much more expensive, but less likely to break down and much faster.

Post is kinda low on details I know. Hopefully someone will be able to fill in the blanks. I'm in a bit of a hurry. Good luck!

Is your case doing loud noises one after another from time to time? If thats the case, it most likely is HDD failure. Anyway, I greatly take into consideration the RPM of the HDD.I wouldn't buy one that isn't of 7200.

Anyway prices differ on Internal speed (RPM), connector and size.

Look on the start menu for a directory for your manufacturer. Should be something like HP or Gateway, Dell etc. Look for a utility named something like "Create System Recovery Disks" or some such. Most manufacturers provide a means to create the recovery disk set . . once.

If you have not done so in the past you should be able to burn a multi-DVD recovery disk set assuming the computer was built by one of the popular vendors. I am not referring to the MS System Restore but to the manufacturers system recovery utility that creates the recovery disks which can be used to return the system, after a hard drive failure, to the original config. Burn the disks, replace the hard drive, boot to disk one, follow the bouncing ball.

Edit: If your system is not set to boot from a DVD drive you may have to enter the BIOS settings to allow the boot from the recovery DVD's. If, after installing the new hard drive, you can't boot to the DVD's (No operating system found error) this would be necessary.

If you are unable to create the recovery disks you can usually order them from the manufacturer for a nominal fee, less than buying an OS new. Look here for an example of how you would order the disks for a random HP computer. Check the website of your computer manufacturer for similar options concerning missing system recovery disks.

I will also add that if you do a system recovery from the original recovery disks . . don't forget to go to Windows Update and download all the updates. Last time I did a recovery for someone I had to download 112 updates. Also check for any new updates on the manufacturer's website. Some vendors put an auto-update utility on every system that checks for updates from the vendor that are not offered by MS.

Though this trick may work, sometimes it actually worsens the hard drive. In many cases, this will make the HD only useable one more time. Use your own discretion and judgement. Hence "last resort" comment. FYI- I work with Dell regularily on OS reloads, and if you have one (depending on the model) you may not have a sticker. If that's the case, then you'll need the Dell OS disk and Dell Drivers and Utilities. They use a specialized OS restore disk that grabs information from internal compenents to generate the CD key**edit to add word "key". Other than those make and models, most companies will have the sticker product key on the tower/bottom of laptop

That's not entirely true. That's either the academic version and OEM version, and it's not supposed to be the case with versions sold to individual users. Doesn't surprise me that Dell would do that they've been cut quality for a long time now. But it's a bad idea to buy a Windows computer that doesn't have the CoA.

The company I work for distributes dell computers to one of the fasted growing franchises in the world, and unfortunately, none of them come from dell with the Serial key. I was only stating that many dell models do not come with the serial key. The ones I've personally purchased (laptops) come with it. Simply depends on the model you get.

Either way, I hope the computer is able to be fixed and nothing is lost that is needed. Best of luck!

Those are probably sold with a site license of some sort. I've never known copies sold to individuals to be without the CoA since they started putting them on the case. It's just too hard for customers to know if they've bought a legitimate copy or not.

I have a solution, you'll need a new Hard Drive and your OS up and running. once done reinstall the dying HDD but dont turn it on see below

1: use a boot cd called Hiren's Burn it and boot from it
2: load up the mini XP mode and launch the Hirens program app from the desktop
3: browse for Recurva inside the recovery section, and do a DEEP scan on your dying harddrive, this could take all day. once done you can kick into advanced mode and sort by "directory"
4: in the options of Recurva you can recover with directory's intact and just run it pointing to a folder on your new Hard Drive.

This method will find so much stuff, it will take along time to sift though, or you can pick and choose which directory's to recover from what Recurva found which may be easier then doing a full recovery. as a note the files may not all be 100% intact.

their is also a program called "Roadkill's Unstoppable Copier" that will bulldoze though bad sectors but it's like tossing a spoon in a garbage disposal, wont hurt it but it'll sound like hell and destroy the spoon This method is about as best you can do without shelling out some big bucks to a techie.