Windows 7: Hard Drive issues... no idea what to do...

You can use a hard drive testing utility from the hard drive manufacturer's web site.



But you haven't filled out your system specs, so we have no idea who made any of your hardware.

If you get a new drive, you can consider any of these 3 things:

1: Clean install to the new drive
2: Clone from the bad drive to the new drive
3: Make an image of the bad drive, store that image temporarily on the external, and then restore the image from the external to the new drive.

A clean install is always preferable if you are willing to take the time to do it.

You should back up your personal data first, regardless.

I would think your first priority should be to copy all of your personal files to your external hard drive. If your drive dies, you probably will not be able to do that. next would be to use the hard drive manufacturers diagnostic program to see if it is in fact your hard drive causing the problem. If it is, I recommend you doing a clean install to a new drive. If the hard drive is bad it is very likely that some files have been corrupted or cannot be read by a clone or imaging program. With a new drive, it is always good to start out clean. You can then move your personal files back to the new installation from the external drive.

DAHHH I JUST TYPED UP THREE PARAGRAPHS AND THEN THEY DISPEARED

Ok..... after I have settled somewhat down, I will retype the entire frickin thing...

I have a file with all my specs on my now useless PC, but after looking around I have determined that I have a:
"WD5000KSRTL 500GB SATAII
SERIAL ATA /300 HD
16MB BUFFER , 7200 RPM"
which is this I believe:
Amazon.com: Western Digital WD5000KSRTL/WD5000AAKS Caviar 500 GB SATA Hard Drive: Electronics
I am glad to supply you with any other specs.

I would like to re-install, but coming back up from scratch and re-installing everything back over again is such an utter hassle, especially considering that for once I was fully pleased with my windows configuration since I switched over to 7.

If there is no risk in using an image and or ghost then I would rather do that and find out if the files have been corrupted from there as I am currently going on vacation, and with school having started recently I am out of much time. However, I would only do this if at any point I could easily completely erase everything on the new HD and start from scratch.

I am currently copying my entire Users file to my external hard drive.

Also, is there any true difference between Cloning and Imaging other than the middle man of the external hard drive?

Go to the Western Digital web site and download and run their hard drive utility. If it fails the test, you likely need a new hard drive. If it passes, you likely have some other problems.

I'm not sure what you mean by "ghosting".

The risk of cloning or imaging is that they won't work properly and you would then face trouble-shooting issues--which may be more of a hassle than a clean install.

If your hard drive is bad, you can try a clone or an image restoration, but if that doesn't work well, at what point do you throw in the towel and do a clean install? That's for you to decide.

Cloning and imaging are different processes and either might work. Cloning is generally used when things are going well and you just want to move to a new hard drive. Imaging is normally used when things have gone bad and you want to recover to a known good state. Imaging is a backup strategy. Cloning is not. The premise of imaging is to make an image of your system WHEN ALL IS WELL and then restore it in an emergency. You didn't make an image when all is well, so it's anybody's guess if imaging will resolve your problems. And both imaging and cloning can fail even in the best of circumstances.

Test your hard drive.

Sorry, I meant cloning.
After my files have been saved, I will test my hard drive, and then update this with the results.

Edit 1: Finished copying files; creating disk for diagnostics

Seems like i'm getting nothing but trouble! The WD diagnostics for my hard drive apparently will not run on a standard SATA drives as is told by Axoltol's first post here: Hard Drive error? - Hard-Disks - Storage
So what should I run diagnostics wise? They recommend some sort of SeaTools diagnostic on the forum I linked, but I'm not too sure about it.

Check your copied "User" files/folder.

Whenever I try to get Windows to copy it, it "forgets" to copy most of the files.

As a result, when I want to do that I use a Live Ubuntu CD.

I cant actually access my OS right now. Instead I used my good ol Paragon Rescue Kit disk. Comes in handy all the time, but I will check when I have the chance.

The post you refered to says the CD won't run on some sata optical drives. Give it a try. The Sea Tools they referred to is Seagates Diagnostic program.

What I meant was that I did try it, so I have no idea what I should use.