BleepingComputer.com: Bad Hard Disk

To start off, my pc is a
Win 7 32 bit
4gb ram
500gb hd
AMD x2 3.1ghz
Nvidia gts 250 1gb

PLEASE EXCUSE ANY TYPOS OR HASTY LOOKING SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION-I have work to do and my pc just decided to **** me

Hello, I have recently ran into a problem. Ever since i installed an HP j4580 printer, it gave me an error after install and then everytime i tried to access printers and safely remove hardware i got an error with something to do with "instruction referenced (numbers) at (numbers) i/o error" and then my pc started slowing down dramtically. Today i turned it on and it froze and i had to turn it off through the switch. Turning the pc back on i see the MSI screen for my motherboard which normally displays when something wrong has occured... it reads

DRAM frequency for 800 (unchanged mode, 64 bit)
1 AMD North Bridge, Rev c2
Initializing USB Controllers...done
4096mb OK
USB Device (s) :1 mouse
Autodetecting SATA5: SATA ATAPI CDROM
Autodetecting SATA3: SATA Hard Disk
SATA5: ATAPI iHas124 b ALO2
ULTRA DMA mode-5
SATA3: WDC wd5000AAKS-22v1ao 05.01d05
Ultra DMA mode-6 SMART capable and status BAD
Autodetecting USB Mass Storage Devices..
00 USB mass storage devices found and configured
3rd Slave Hard Disk SMART Status BAD, Backup and Replace
Press f1 to resume

I am assuming my harddisc has fd up pretty bad, so i press f1, the pc is extremly slow and loads up to a screen giving me the option to start windows normally or with startup repair

If i pick startup repair-it reads my disk is bad after an hour of "repair and detection of problems"
If i pick normal startup- i get to "windows is starting" after an excruciating wait of about 30 mins and then another 30 mins the picture of the Windows logo forms as a normal w7 boots and then i still wait and nothing happens

So now, im here wondering, can i format? I put in my w7 disc and i boot from disc
It loads for a bit after pressing any key to boot from windows and then i get this message saying
something about an i/o error and that a disk drive must be problemed or something? Wtf :/

Ill keep updating on what i can manage to do

EDIT- I have managed to boot from a 32 bit w7 disc What shall i do, format or attempt a repair? - so far i have reached "setup is starting" which is promising for me at this point
EDIT2= Hard drive is literally expected to fail according to windows 7 disc, i attemptd to format it and it stuck for over 1 hr, ive formatted before and know a format of 100-150 gb usually takes less than 30 seconds! Im assuming the hard drive is ruined and am ordering an rma
EDIT3- R studio is able to scan the failed hard drive. I hope i can get everything from it! then ill send for the RMA model and benefit 2 ways!

This post has been edited by n33dHelp: 03 May 2011 - 08:05 PM
Reason for edit: Moved from Windows 7 forum to Internal Hardware ~Elise

Just an opinion I am sure there are others some maybe better! The more you fool with that drive the data may become inaccessible, I would purchase another drive do a clean install of 7. Once the machine was up and running I would put the old drive back in as a slave retrieve your data, then I would format it to see if it is usable. Drives have gotten so cheap many times it is not worth the mental anguish of messing with a screwed up one.

Phil

What is the model of your hard drive?

I have a WD 500gb caviar blue... model number WD5000AAKS -GREAT NEWS THOUGH...i found a program called "R studio" and despite its eta of 2 days to complete scanning my hd, it seems im able to find all of the data again, Thanks to OldPhil's suggestion i took my 1tb western digital mybook, popped it open and placed the 500gb in it as a portable and rstudio is now scanning it... My Mafia 2 game saves and MW2 game saves are there last time i checked :D and plus i think i can format it now after i get what i need

Download this and run the extended scan.