WDC WD4000YR-01PLB0 failing

[tmcwboards]

Have one of these hard drives, was in a PC used as a HTPC for the past couple of years, and about a week ago, I noticed some problems with the drive accessing some movies, and then Windows loosing sight of it. Rebooting would make it become visible again, but often would loose sight again.

Anyway, I took the hard drive out to another PC, and had some similar problems, but managed to get everything I needed off it using an IDE<->SATA connector in another PC that didn't have any SATA conenctors on the motherboard.

I've used DiskCheckup to monitor my hard drives for a good few years now, and recall that the hard drive had a few (5, IIRC) reallocated sectors in the beginning, and this number didn't increase until about a week ago. At that time, when I checked the reallocated sector count, it had first gone up to about 30, and with every reboot (I only had a few spare 80GB drives, so had to shut down), the value kept increasing. When I finished recovering what I needed, the reallocated sector count was 511.

Today, I booted it up again, and when accessing some folders, the drive makes some very loud churning, but always seems to get there. Reallocated sector count has gone up to 527.

What I'm wondering is if there is any point in continuing with the drive? Are there any (free) tools that can have a good look at the hard drive, maybe see where it's failing, and if for example it was isolated to one platter, ignore that platter and just use the others? My limited understanding of failures says that it could be the result of a head impact, and the debris is being knocked about the surface, making it worse, but is it likely to effect the other platters?

[drc]

What I'm wondering is if there is any point in continuing with the drive?

IMO, no

Are there any (free) tools that can have a good look at the hard drive, maybe see where it's failing, and if for example it was isolated to one platter, ignore that platter and just use the others?

No