Unsure of what is going on, need major help.

[Darryl Licht]

Runorgun: Corazon may be on to something... however diagnosing things like this second hand are difficult and dangerous.....

.......Something else to consider is pulling the "bad" HDD and placing it into another PC as a second HDD to check if you can access and backup your data.

Corazon has only expressed his worst fears and also wishes that it is not true. Right, a distant diagnosis is always difficult and we can only express the possibilities which if confirmed go into remedial measures.

Your suggestion to pull out the bad HDD , may not be possible for an ordinary user more so when the OP says it is a laptop. Therein goes my suggestion to try Puppy Linux on a USB and check whether the hard disk is accessible and recoverable without any disassembly. I chose that exhaustive tutorial that is easy to execute even by a novice.

I disagree...
Removing a HDD from a lappy requires 1 small phillips and 1-2 screws in almost everyone Ive ever taken apart. I've worked on 100's in the last 20 years! Its so easy a caveman can do it!

 

[jumanji]

OK, on my lappie, it is not so. It requires a complete disassembly which I dare not do.

Now it is OP's choice. He has two options.