Failing HDD

[pandanasbearz]

Hi everyone,

I received my PC about 3 weeks ago and ever since then I get the occasionally BSODs saying Kernel_inpage_error. I have checked online and found that the problem is a failing HDD. I'm pretty convinced it is as when I rebooted from a BSOD, it says "windows was temporarily unable to read from your hard drive". However, I have 2 hard drives in my system, a primary boot SSD and a HDD where I put everything except core programs on and I am not sure which one is failing. I would say it is the HDD that is failing as every time it BSODs I was playing a game installed on the HDD but I can not be sure.
Is there a program I could use to check which one is failing, or is the problem totally unrelated to the HDD?

Addtionally, here is some additional information:

- Unplugged and reconnected the PSU cable and the SATA cables from both my drives, rebooted, and received a BSOD saying "critical process failed" once, but not recurring.
- Changed the slots on the MOBO for the drives, but problem is still occuring.

Here is my spec:

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4770 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® Z87-A: ATX, USB3.0, SATA6GB/S, SLi, XFIRE + **FREE GAME**
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 8GB KIT)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 780 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 530 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Corsair H60 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 2 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 8.1 (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days
Miscellaneous
FREE BATTLEFIELD 4 GAME with Z87-A MOTHERBOARD!
Miscellaneous
FREE ASSASSINS CREED BLACK FLAG with GTX 660 & 7 Series GPUs!
Quantity
1

Any help would be appreciated!

PS. I know the forums are not an official route of technical support but want to see what you guys think before calling them up tomorrow.

 

[keynes]

WD has a utility to test the hard drive, try to run it and see if it finds any errors.

 

[steaky360]

You could try running the windows scandisk on the harddrive you think is failing. I had a similar problem with one of my drives essentially causing the PC to lock [no BSOD just totally frozen], I ended up replacing the hard drive.

WD error checking program (as suggested by Keynes): http://support.wd.com/product/download.asp?groupid=613&lang=en

 

[pandanasbearz]

Just an update for you guys.
I completely reinstalled windows, and the PC seems to be running fine now. The HDD also somehow passed the WD Diag test, when it failed before due to "too many bad sectors", the HDD seems to be working fine now as well with no problems at all. So I was thinking it was the either initial installation of windows that was causing the problem or a virus attack (as I stubbornly didn't install an antivirus before, I have webroot installed now so that's sorted)
One quick question is should I reinstall the intel rapid storage technology driver as my device manager says it has the "Standard SATA ACHI controller" whereas before it was intel's. Also, what's the difference between the two?

Thanks everyone for the help!