Is my hard drive dying?

[Atls]

Hello. I have a Western Digital Black hard drive, and I am wondering if I should replace it soon. I am getting lots of quick stutters in everyday computer use. Some programs take a while to load up; programs often crash; Windows becomes non-responsive frequently, etc.

Also, when I turn the computer off, it hangs at the "Windows is shutting down" forever, and I have to manually turn it off. The circle icon is spinning, but it never shuts off.

I am running it on AHCI mode, forced on from the BIOS. I have also tried several different SATA cables and ports, and I'm still experiencing these sluggish problems.

I have two hard drives: This one, which is my main; and another 250GB for storage.

I have defragmented, I have used anti virus, and I have done everything else. I have 6 fans in my PC for cooling.

Windows 7 x64
Intel Core-i5
4GB DDR3 memory
GTX 460 1GB
Antec Ea650W PSU
Caviar Black 500GB HDD

Thanks!

Edit: I have run the WD Tool Extended Test overnight, and it passed.

 

[Elixer]

Check your event viewer for any disk errors.

 

[beginner99]

First of in windows drives tend to get slower over the years. I think we all know that. However strange behavior can be an indicator that the disk is failing. Have seen it luckily not any of my drives.

- backup your data to external HDD / DVD / whatever
- check SMART attributes of the drives
- re-install windows (the real pain is to afterwards re-install all your apps...)
- if still slow and same issue -> drive is probably bad

If you have the money i suggest you get an ssd and you will never have to deal with this stuff.

 

[Coup27]

Ignore post. Didn't see you had already ran a HD fitness test.