Could HDD cause BSODs?

[Rufin]

As a note, this is a direct copy/paste from my thread on the WoW tech forums.
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All right, so I'd been having blue screens on my newly built computer for a while now. These always occurred shortly after entering WoW and randomly while on other games (Diablo 3, Supreme Commander, and Black and White 2 [the god game, not Pokemon] all suffered as well). Occasionally they would occur when browsing the internet but this happened only twice I believe.
A list of what I can remember being problems:
Bad_Pool_Header
0x3b
0x24
System_Service_Exception
0x7
0x0c5
IRQL_Not_Equal
Memory_Management
There were probably others.

ANYWAYS

Today the computer told me my Hard Drive was screwed and to back up my data before shutting down. So I shut it down, and now when I log onto my OS (Windows 7) I get to my desktop for a second before the computer shuts down and I get "No Signal" from the monitor.

This all brings me to my grand question: Is there a high likelihood that it was my HDD that was causing the BSODs, or is there still a possibility it was my RAM or something?
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So, what do you guys think? Was it the HDD all along or is there still a possibility it could be something else?

[glo]

AFAIK Windows doesn't have anything built in that will warn you if your drive is failing. Which program told you that? Further, your issue leans a lot more towards corrupted drivers or a defective motherboard.

Corrupted HDD data and defective RAM will typically prevent you from booting into Windows altogether.

Regardless, do the following so we have some idea of what's going on:

1. Download and burn memtest:

http://www.memtest.org/

Boot from the disc and let it test your RAM for errors.

2. Download HD Tune:

http://www.hdtune.com/download.html

Install it, open it and go to the "health" tab. Expand the window to display all values and take a screenshot. Post it here.

[Deleted]

AFAIK Windows doesn't have anything built in that will warn you if your drive is failing.

False. Windows has the ability to warn in some cases where HDD failure is expected. (Though it won't always trigger - something more 'proper' is still recommended)

[glo]

False. Windows has the ability to warn in some cases where HDD failure is expected. (Though it won't always trigger - something more 'proper' is still recommended)

No, you're the one that's wrong. I put the "AFAIK" out of politeness. The DiskDiagnostic/resolver have been disabled by default since Windows 7 released, mainly because it would spew tons of crap even if drives were healthy in Vista. S.M.A.R.T parameters vary wildly between manufacturers, so there was no real way for it to ever be accurate.

[DarkTZeratul]

I've had a hard drive failure once before, and it started spitting out lots of blue screens as it began to die.

So yes, it's absolutely likely that's what was causing them.

[Deleted]

what does the bugcheck info say in Event Viewer?

[Smango]

Short answer, Yes HDD can cause BSOD.

However, It's a new built computer so that's probably unlikely, but a possibility. Afer running some tests and if they all pass, I would suggest just reinstalling everything could be a corrupt install. It happens.

[Rufin]

Thanks for the answers.
All right, well I popped in a RAM test just now and the computer is going berserk with all the errors it's finding on them. I have both sticks in atm so I'll have to test them individually later tonight.

Could the RAM have actually caused my HDD to fail?

[a21fa7c67f26f6d49a20c2c51]

Thanks for the answers.
All right, well I popped in a RAM test just now and the computer is going berserk with all the errors it's finding on them. I have both sticks in atm so I'll have to test them individually later tonight.

Could the RAM have actually caused my HDD to fail?

It's possible put very unlikely that memory caused your hard disk to fail. It is much more believable that faulty memory caused corrupt data to be written to the drive or for data read from the drive to appear corrupted. If you suspect the drive or the data on it has become damaged then restoring it from a known-good backup is the way to go. If your good ram and good data are still causing issues then you have a reason to suspect a bad drive or drive-controller.