Hard drive problem

[iffy]

Right guys, been having a problem with my system for some time now. And now I finally think I have got to the bottom of it.

Background:
System tends to freeze when system is under load. Too many usb devices attached or too many programs running. Read my other post regarding it http://www.computerforums.org/showthread.php?98918-Need-Help-With-Diagnosing-System-Fault&highlight=

What I have done so far:
Checked motherboard with an identical model - no fault
ram - no fault
psu - no fault
processor - no fault
ide leads - no faults

so now that leaves two things - psu lead and hdd. I highly doubt the psu lead is at fault, so really were looking at the hdd. One thing I found really odd was that the hdd was more stable with extra cooling, however the hdd is within manufacturers temperature spec.

So what do I do now? I have many important connection and gds programs running on this system and I cannot afford to reformat. Is it possible to clone the hdd and have the cloned hdd replace the original?

 

[Celegorm]

Cloning is a possiblity.

Before buying a new drive, I'd look at the system error logs and see if there are any records of disk/file system errors. If it's file system, running checkdisk /r might fix it. Also try running sfc /scannow.

If you are still having issues, go to the manufacturer's site for the hard drive and try their diagnostic software. If you can, get a bootable CD version as they usually more accurate than the windows version.

 

[iffy]

take it sfc/scannow is what i type in to command prompt? Also if I create a restore point before doing this, will I be able to reverse anything that can possibly go wrong? Or how can I back up the hdd before doing this? I have a 500gb usb disk.

 

[iffy]

Right, ran sfc/scannow and the problem still persists. Now I will have to run the manufacturers hdd utility. Can someone please advise on how to backup the hdd so that if something does go wrong I can reinstate the lost data?

Also I believe there are two versions of hdd testing. Dos and windows. Should I be going for the dos version?

 

[iffy]

help please someone