+1 on Jack's post! I would add: make any sane attempts to recover or restore one's data on other external media before pitching the problematic HD.
I would go even further. Make sure you have your data backed up before the HDD becomes problematic. In other words, if you make frequent, routine backups, you will lose little to no data when a drive goes belly-up and will not need to worry about (and/or spend large amounts of money) restoring or recovering your data.
While we can discuss a variety of backup routines here, and there are many good ones out there, when reduced down to the very basics, one's data needs to exist in at least three places with each place disconnected from the others, except when updating backups, to be reasonably safe. An example would be data on a computer, an onsite backup such as on an external HDD stored on a drawer away from the computer (in another room if practical), and an offsite backup such as an external HDD in a locked drawer or locker at work, at a trusted friend's or relative's home, or a safe deposit box at a bank. A good, paid cloud backup service can also serve as an offsite backup as long as one has the monthly bandwith needed available.
My Computer
- Computer type
- PC/Desktop
- Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
- Custom Build
- OS
- Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit
- CPU
- Intel i7-3930K
- Motherboard
- ASUS P9X79 WS
- Memory
- Kingston HyperX Genesis 32GB Kit (8x4GB Modules) 1600MHz DDR
- Graphics Card(s)
- MSI R7850 Twin Frozr 2GD5/OC Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR
- Sound Card
- Asus Xonar Essence STX
- Monitor(s) Displays
- 3x Asus VG248QE 24", Vizio 32" TV
- Screen Resolution
- 1920 x 1080, ?
- Hard Drives
- Samsung 128GB 840 Pro SSD (1),
Samsung 4TB 850 EVO SSDs (4)
Samsung 4TB 850 EVO SSDs (16) external backup drives used in 2.5" hot swap bays in the computer.
- PSU
- Corsair HX750w
- Case
- Antec Two Hundred v2 (modified)
- Cooling
- Cooler Master GeminII S524 120mm (fan replaced with a 140mm)
- Keyboard
- Logitech G510s
- Mouse
- Logitech M525 (two in use)
- Internet Speed
- =< 32Mbps down, 8Mbps up
- Antivirus
- AVAST!, MBAM, SAS, Spybot S&D (all but MBAM free) Glary Util
- Browser
- IE11
- Other Info
- LSI 9211-8i HBA card (8 SATA III ports), 2.5" & 3.5" Hot Swap Bays, HooToo HT-CR001 PCI-E to USB 3.0 Internal Hub + 6 Slot Card Reader, and LG Model CH12LS28 BD-ROM Optical Drive. Also, ScanSnap S1500 ADF duplexing scanner, Canon 9000F flat bed scanner, Corsair SP2500 2.1 speakers, Samsung CLP 415nw laser color printer, Cyberpower PP2200SW UPS