Cheers, Mesh.
Sadly my system isn't starting. Well it does but it takes many reboots. Busy saving individually and in bulk. Lots of beeps and clicks. Looks like new HD and new OS. Time to dust off the 'hole in the head ' quote.

I'm thinking I might pick up a Samsung SSD and another black drive soon. Kinda waiting on sales again

strikinglyhandsome1
Cheers, Mesh.
Sadly my system isn't starting. Well it does but it takes many reboots. Busy saving individually and in bulk. Lots of beeps and clicks. Looks like new HD and new OS. Time to dust off the 'hole in the head ' quote.

The good thing is you're still able to recover/save those files. If you can afford it, get a big SSD (250 GB or even 500 GB) as they'll fill up very quickly. You'll have a very "snappy" and fast loading OS/software/boot up drive.    

It is easiest to attach the disk to another computer to not boot from it.
Copy what you can.
Run scandisk    it may just be a corrupt file system
get the manufacturers tool for testing

Cheers chaps!

I think I'll do a test. Although I am officially the worlds unluckiest person when it comes to hardware and software, I would like to know why all three HDs have died quicker than I think they should. Pain in the neck to say the least!

Yep Mesh, looking at 250GB or 500GB. If it was based on budget it would have to be 3½GB!

Not to hijack but which of these (or any others in this price range) would you guys get?
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/937663-REG/seagate_st1000dx001_1tb_7200rpm_3_5_sata.html

 
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1041394-REG/wd_wdbsla0010hnc_nrsn_1tb_internal_drive_for.html

Western Digital. I'll probably never use Seagate again.

TerraSin
Western Digital. I'll probably never use Seagate again.

Thanks, I've heard others dissing Seagate also...that said I have 3 of which 2 are more than 8 years old but maybe I've just been lucky : )

WD drives are the way to go but why so big?  An OS boot drive should not be your recording or media storage drives. It should just hold the OS & programs.
 
I use a 250GB drive with a 40GB boot partition (I'm still on XP) for my DAW.  It's got 25GB on it and 15GB free.  With Win 7 or 8 I'd go with an 100 GB boot partition.  The rest of the drive is just for data files & progam install files.  My recording drive is  a 10,000 RPM 36GB SCSI.  I also have a 1TB media storage drive and 4 TB network server drive.  Not to mention a 2TB USB3 backup drive and a couple of USB3 500GB portable drives.
 
What ever you do do not use Seagate drives!  Not worth the risk.

aoresteen
WD drives are the way to go but why so big?  An OS boot drive should not be your recording or media storage drives. It should just hold the OS & programs.
 
I use a 250GB drive with a 40GB boot partition (I'm still on XP) for my DAW.  It's got 25GB on it and 15GB free.  With Win 7 or 8 I'd go with an 100 GB boot partition.  The rest of the drive is just for data files & progam install files.  My recording drive is  a 10,000 RPM 36GB SCSI.  I also have a 1TB media storage drive and 4 TB network server drive.  Not to mention a 2TB USB3 backup drive and a couple of USB3 500GB portable drives.
 
What ever you do do not use Seagate drives!  Not worth the risk.

I guess you didn't notice my sig... I use a 180GB Corsair Force series 3 SSD for my OS/programs along with several (older, slower) drives.
This will be for libraries that have been taxing some of those older drives.
Thanks,
Randy