Considering Reinstalling Windows 10 due to BSODs

[General Snivy]

Lately, I have been experiencing random Blue Screens of Death and they have been occurring at least once per week, sometimes 2 or 3 times in one day. Each time I get a BSOD, the error, or what caused the BSOD, is different. The last couple of times this occurred, it messed up some of the drivers on some of my devices, such as my external hard drive and my Blue Yeti microphone. I was able to fix them eventually, but it still concerns me that this is happening so frequently. I've had my computer for many years now and maybe, this is a sign that my primary hard drive is dying. It's not making any odd noises, like clicking as if it was a dolphin or anything. The hard drive still works fine, for the most part. It's just the BSODs are annoying to deal with, especially since they are random when they happen.

 

Before I go any further, I want to iterate that the hard drive in question is a regular, 3.5" desktop mechanical hard drive. It is a Western Digital HDD, but I'm unsure of what it's RPM is. I'm going to guess 5400 at least. The hard drive is over 7 years old and it has ran 3 operating systems so far in its lifetime. First, was Windows 7 Ultimate, then Windows 8.1 Pro, then finally, Windows 10 Pro, which is its current operating system. (Each OS install was using legit legal versions of the respective OS's. From OEM, to a retail purchase upgrade, to a free upgrade which Microsoft was offering when Windows 10 was first made available.)  If anyone is interested, here are my system specs:

 

OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Pro

Version 10.0.17134 Build 17134

OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation

System Manufacturer MSI

System Model MS-7917

System Type (x64) based PC

Processor Intel® Core i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz, 3601 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)

BaseBoard Manufacturer MSI

Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB

Total Physical Memory 15.9 GB

Anyway, my plan is to buy a new hard drive, an external hard drive to back up all of my important data, and a retail copy of Windows 10. Then, I'll reinstall Windows 10 fresh onto the new hard drive. The main reason why I'm making this topic is because, my second internal hard drive that's currently installed in my PC, is storing all of my steam games. Since the second hard drive has a primary partition, will I be able to use it along with the new hard drive to restore my Steam library without much downtime after a fresh install of Windows 10? Or will I have to delete the partition and reformat the second hard drive before I can use it again?

[Zennon]

The ticking from the HDD is indicative of a HHD failure.

 

If you want to test it to find out then I would grab a copy of GSmartControl GSmartControl
which can be run from an.exe in windows or "recommended" burned to a live disk and run from CD/DVD or pen drive (if you use Rufus to make it bootable) to check the disk for bad sectors / failure. https://gsmartcontrol.sourceforge.io/home/index.php/Downloads

 

While you are at are it it I would test your RAM with Memtest86 burned to disk.

 

You will not need to buy Windows 10 again your license is saved to your machine and when you install Windows10 press I do not have a license key to carry on and it will auto activate when your are online.
 

You will have to tell the steam client the root of your steam downloads and they will work again from your second HDD.

[iAmMoDBoX]

And PLEASE use a Samsung SSD as your new drive

[Zennon]

And PLEASE use a Samsung SSD as your new drive

Both my PC and laptop have Evo's, top notch SSD's for sure

[ColonicBoom]

And PLEASE use a Samsung SSD as your new drive

 

Both my PC and laptop have Evo's, top notch SSD's for sure

 

I also have a Samsung SSD.

 

We'd better change our name to the 'Samsung SSD ol' boys club!'