3 Signs of a Failing Hard Drive? or Is it?

[SkyNet_3000]

Hi Tom's Hardware Community,

Was wondering if you can please help me tell what the problem and solution might be here, as I am not the most tech savvy.

I have encountered the following issues before, which went away for some time after restoring computer to factory settings but they have re-merged.

Issue #1: My Internet will stop connecting to the router randomly (sometimes when working in Gmail). It will keep attempting to connect non-stop but to no avail. A temporary fix that seems to work is to restart the router and restart my computer and the issue. This issue can return quickly (within 20 minutes) or wait a while (weeks to a month). My room mate's computer and my phone does not lose connection, so issue not with router.

Previously, before I wiped my computer, this issue became increasingly worse to the point where could not connect to Internet. It seems a few people have noted this issue with my laptop but no real solution found:

http/forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/713016-wireless-adapter-loosing-internet-connection.html
https/www.facebook.com/notes/samsung-notebook/samsung-series-7-chronos-drivers-update/313387158721211

Issue #2: USB Ports sporadically stop working. Unplugging it and replugging device into different port works for the time being.

I recall this issue too getting worse over time to the point before the hard drive wipe.

Issue #3 - Disappearing Pictures in Pictures folder?

I recall photo albums not appearing in the "Pictures library", but doing a search in the search bar would be able to recover the photos where I could copy and repaste in the "Pictures" library where they could be found. A friend pointed out the "Pictures library" is different from the "Pictures folder" and asked me which one I was searching (I don't fully remember). It seems though if the Pictures "library" should be accurate cause doesn't it draw from the "Pictures folder"?

I ran an HDDScan from http/hddscan.com/ and it gave me a yellow caution sign in these 3 areas (not-red which is more serious):

Reallocation Sector Count. Value: 095. Threshold: 010. Raw (hex): 0000000000-0360
Reallocation Event Count. Value: 095. Threshold 000. Raw (hex): 0000000000-0360
UltraDMA CRC Errors. Value: 100. Threshold 000. Raw (hex): 0000000000-0001

I also ran Seagate Tools for Windows, in which the hard drive failed all their tests (below). Ironiccaly, Seagate for DOS, which is supposed to be far more accurate tool, reported no problems.

S.M.A.R.T Check FAIL
Short Drive Self Test FAIL
Short Generic FAIL
Long Generic FAIL

One of my more comptur savvy friends said hard drive always have some failure, so he didn't necessary think it was my hard drive causing the problem but I am not so sure.

Is my hard drive slowing dying? Should I replace it? I replaced my wifi card and it did not fix the wireless issue.

I ran some fancy virus scan software from both zone alarm, ESET, and Malware Malbytes which did not find issue.

Calling Samsung IT people offer limited help.

My laptop is a 3 year-old Samsung model number: np700z5b-s01ub
Laptop's hard drive Model: ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB

Thank you for your time and advice in helping me out!

 

[digitaldoc]

Your hard drive is quickly failing, and you need to get your data off of it ASAP, and it should be replaced.

It is unclear to me if your other issues will be fixed with a new hard drive, but some of them may go away with a new hard drive.