Hi there Atowncalledmalice,
That is really unpleasant.

My suggestion would be to use some data recovery tool for DOS mode and get the data stored on the drive that is important. You can check Ubuntu Live CD method:
http
/www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/267999-32-recover-data-mode
After that, you can run some Win repair in case you have CDs.
Alternatively, you can perform a clean install.
After that, you can test the drive with some of these:
http
/www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility
@zer0c00l587 The fact that the drive is 6 months old, doesn't really mean that it is in a healthy sate. Mechanical drives could fail without a warning.
Let us know how this goes,
D_Know_WD