Hard Drive: Dead or Alive?

[chappy311]

Computer started freezing about a month ago, restarting itself, etc. After a while, it got to the point where it wouldn't even boot up. Then after several attempts Windows loaded saying that one of my disks need to be checked for consistency, after which Windows booted on my old backup HD that I left hooked up. Everything runs fine while this old drive is the C: drive, which leads me to assume that my newer HD is either toast or having some serious issues.

I'm running the full ScanDisk now on it, and its taking forever, which might be a good thing. But if this doesn't work, is there anything else I can do to check to see if the disk is fixable before I ditch it and go get a new one? Programs, etc. I have a sh*t-ton of music, vids, etc that I'd rather not lose.

Thanks a lot for any help.

 

[RebateMonger]

If you just want to copy the music, attach the drive as a secondary hard drive to your PC and copy the files to the "good" drive. You may need to Take Ownership and set file security permissions to copy the files, depending on where they are located.

After copying the files to somewhere safe, boot to the hard drive maker's disk diagnostics program, and test the drive. Or run the Windows version of the diagnostics program if available.

If your data is important to you, consider setting up ongoing backups, either to an external hard drive or to another PC on your network.