Windows 7: Playback issuse - file transfers freezing - harddrive failure

Hello all looking for a little help,

Started experiencing playback lag on most movies that were stored on my E Drive which is a 500gb western digital, taking a movie off that harddrive and placing it on my C drive(150gb WDraptorx) sometimes would hang during the file transfer for 10 minutes then start up again. playback would be smooth if played from my external or main c drive , so i thought this could be my E drive was failing, so i tried a disk check over night but was only 10% when i got up and didn't seem to be moving at all.

1week later i get a BSOD and freezes for 15 minutes so i did a hard reset, freezes on loading screen for windows and BSOD once again, once is started up in bios got windows is missing a certain file and prompted me to system restore and was freezing every couple of minutes but completed successfully. 2 hours later i get BSOD and BIOS reports the C drive as BAD. did a check disk for it and had a ton of unreadable sections but it completed, haven't been able to get back to windows since. ATM am trying start up repair but its already on 2 hours +.

This computer and its hard drives are 6 years+ everything is hooked up via SATA connections.

Should i take the main drive out and install windows on to my secondary or is it possible that they are both failing and should just purchase a new hard drive.

See what results you get when running the disk tests available in the machine's BIOS.

Might want to try downloading diagnostic utilities from the manufacturers of the drives to test them.

SeaTools from Seagate can also test many disks, regardless of brand.

Thanks i will give sea tools a try and report back.

I ran Seatools in dos and its turns out its only my main C drive that is the issue here, also tried to install windows on my secondary drive, couldn't even get to the installation part just froze with a black screen, unplugged the C drive and tried again, it started up very quick.

Installing right now seems everything is going smoothly.

Thanks for the help, sea tools was very useful.

Glad to hear! Please post back when you're all done to let us know how it turns out...

OK so Windows 7 installed smoothly and updated fine but I seem to be running into a new problem that might be related, installing software for my on board sound card i had to restart, when booting my monitor didn't turn on(check signal cables) i have my TV plugged in thru hdmi and it also wasn't getting detected, had to restart it many times until it finally worked, now it does this every time i shut it down, having to restart 5 times + just to see bios and get back in.

also with sea tools i only did the short test on the E drive(Passed) before putting Windows 7 on it, tried the long test last night and got read sector errors / power failure couldn't repair.

Were you able to get all hardware drivers were up to date?
So Seatools told you have two bad hard drives? Does this sound reasonable to you? Are they old, brand new, or handled somewhat carelessly (especially while running)? And can you elaborate on what this part means: "power failure couldn't repair".

Yes i downloaded the latest drivers from MSI and video driver from ATI, installed smoothly, windows updated fully. Can drivers affect the motherboard bios before windows even loads, because i couldn't even access them with no monitors working.

First time i used Seatools i did short test on both drives and couldn't scan the C drive as it said S.M.A.R.T had been tripped, and E drive reported as good, but doing a Long test last night on this E drive(now my main C drive) didn't pass, i wish i wrote down the results, i will be doing another test tonight as it takes fairly long and give you exactly what it reports.

Built this computer sometime in 2006 replaced the video card 2 years ago with a Sapphire HD5800, always been in the same spot with ample air flow and never abused.

Based on what you said in your last post, I would stop using the machine at all, including running any more tests, unless you already have all of your personal data backed up to known good media. If your backups are not up to date, I would do it now. If health of the drives is somewhat marginal, stressing them more by testing can degrade them to the point where you wouldn't even be able to get your data off of them.

When you're sure your backups are in order, then I would carry on with the testing. But honestly, it looks like you need to start shopping for a new drive(s) for the machine. If you feel it's worthwhile that is.

Do you reboot very often? If SMART has determined a disk has been critically degraded you likely would've been getting a SMART error message before Windows gets loaded (although I don't think this is the case with all motherboards/controllers).

Alright got most of it backed up on to an external drive, guess its time to get a replacement drive.

hoping the issue with no signal on the monitors before bios even starts isn't a video card or power supply also failing.

Thanks for prompt reply's and help troubleshooting you have been very helpful.