Need help: HDD failing

[TehQuick]

Well, it's been a while since an HDD failed on me and here it is again. I was getting random errors for a while now, system hanging in 3d, not resuming properly, BSODs related to RAM, and hangs on boot. Well, it seems that a certain drive is causing that (removing it removed my latest issues with hang on boot - system doesn't boot with suspect drive and OS drive but boots with suspect alone, and boots fine with OS and all other drives in my system, go figure).

What can I do to recover data before this drive goes completely dead (if it's not already, it boots alone in the system but I dunno if it's accessible)? Finally, how can I make sure that this is drive alone and not another one failing?

EDIT: found WD diagnostics, ran them under dos - no errors. Ran quick diagnostics with Windows Seagate tools on other drives, seem to check out

 

[jmroberts70]

I'd suggest purchasing Spinrite. It's expensive (around $90) but it's by far the best software investment I've ever made. Also, if it doesn't work, you can always return it for a refund. As a PC tech, I've had so much success with it that I carry it around on a bootable USB stick at all times!

Good luck!

 

[TehQuick]

thanks for the suggestion, I'll try that. The weird thing that the drive passes tests in DOS alone but still hangs the system at boot if I plug my OS drive in. So I'm at a loss as to how to backup the drive. I guess I'll try this program instead of windows copy