I think my main drive is failing and that's causing all sorts of i

Hello Alex,

Me being in the UK it would have been almost 6pm here when you post 

Not looking good for the drive but you could try the free software here to see if that works, other than that I can only think of trying DBan (free) 

Hi Phill,
I'm still here. I'm trying the first free software you recommended and we're coming up on day two of it wiping my disc. It's working cause the percentage finished is slowly climbing so I'm going to let it run it's course. I'll let you know how things go when it completes.

Thanks for your patience.
Alex

EDIT:

It finally finished but it still is picked up during reboot as a bad disk, so I'm also thinking this disk is on it's way out.  For now, I'm keeping it on and using it for really temp storage and I'll be purchasing a new disk soon.  I did manage to re-format it to ntfs so that's good.

I have file history enabled and I've created a restore point now.

Can you think of anything else I should put in order now that I have my system back?

Thanks

Alex

Hello Alex,

Thanks for the updates 

While not ideal you have at least confirmed for yourself that the drive is bad and should not be used for storing important information on.

You appear to have everything in hand now so the final suggestion from me is to create a back up of your 500GB Seagate HDD using Macrium Reflect (free) see tutorial courtesy of Essexboy over at sister site GTG here

Thank you Phill,

I really appreciate all your hard work getting me and my system back on-line! As frustrating a situation like this is, it's nice to know there are sites like this, and people like you, that are willing to spend time and effort to get us non-computer types through.

And I'll take your advice about backing up my Seagate HDD as well.

Thank you!

Alex

You are welcome Alex and thank you for your kind words 

Can I ask that if after creating your back up you are happy with everything can you mark your thread as having been solved for us please.

Thanks again What the Tech and Phill,

I think we can call this issue resolved!

Thanks

Alex