Help with Laptop HDD

CyberKID

In search for Tech Gyan!
Hello guys! I need some help from you guys in replacing my Dell Inspiron 14R's HDD.
A few days back, I defragmented all my drives using piriform defraggler and this doomed me. It seems to me that it somehow further deteriorated the condition of my already dying hard drive. Since that defragment, my system has started become very slow, even failing to read/copy files at times, freezing at times while performing simple daily tasks. This wierd behaviour still didn't trigger a suspicion of a failing hard drive in my mind as I have never faced a failing hard drive in more than 8 years of having a computer. Even the 80 GB IDE from WD that came with my branded system 8 years ago is still running good, without any issues whatsoever. I suspected the bloated Windows 7 Home Basic that has been on my system for around 2 years now, and decided to remove and reinstall it, formatting my C drive on which the windows is installed. It is when I started trying to copy an ISO of the windows 7 HB DVD that I have made a backup in my F drive. I was getting speeds of 35-100KB for copying the iso to a pen drive, at times, freezing too. This led me to suspect the Pen Drive. Then I tried copying the iso from that drive to the other, and this is when I suspected it on the HDD. On googling, I found someone asking for the exact same thing on tomshardware.
Now I'm running the WD Data LifeGuard Diagnostics since yesterday find the exact status of the HDD. And just now, while writing this thread, it has prompted "Too many bad sectors" and has failed the extended test. I would like to know what can I do now to retrieve data from the failing HDD, beyond using data recovery applications. Moreover, I'd like you guys to help me with choosing another HDD for my laptop. I'm not willing to spend too much, because my laptop is already more than 2.5 years old, and I do not expect this to go on for too long. For now I have checked Flipkart and also the price list of costtocost @ Nehru Place in New Delhi. I am planning to buy a 500GB HDD this time. I have found a few on FK and costtocost. Here are the links:
1. Hitachi 500 GB Laptop Internal Hard Drive (Travelstar 5K1000) - Hitachi: Flipkart.com
2. WD Scorpio Blue 500 GB Laptop internal hard drive (WD5000LPVT) - WD: Flipkart.com
3. Seagate Momentus 500 GB Laptop Internal Hard Drive (ST500LT012) - Seagate: Flipkart.com
4. *www.costtocost.in/list/pricelist.pdf

Now the issue here is of warranty. Most WD's and Seagates come with 2-3 years warranty, while a few Hitachis a still available with 5 years of warranty at the least cost. I would like you guys to suggest which brand should I go in with, though, I personally prefer Seagate of WD because I've had hdd's from these brands, but the Hitachis are amazingly cheap, and offering a 5 year warranty. I am not expecting to spend anything more than 4.5K for a 500GB HDD, and since I need storage space, SSD's are out of question.

The current config of my laptop are:
Dell Inspiron 14R N4010
Processor: Intel Core i5 (First gen) 480M
HM57 Chipset
RAM: 4+2GB DDR3
HDD: 320GB WD (WD3200BEVT) a Blue variant. (This one is failing)

Hoping for a quick reply.
 
OP
CyberKID

CyberKID

In search for Tech Gyan!
Mods, please close this thread.
Since there was no response from anyone, I went ahead and bought the HDD.
 
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